


Transformers Animated: United Universe

by MexCraziness



Series: TFA: United Universe [1]
Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-19 10:03:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1465330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MexCraziness/pseuds/MexCraziness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It's my first TFA fanfic, (and my very first fanfic on this site and in overall) that happens 70 years after the end of TFA. I was writing this single chapter like... forever! I hope I can get the second chapter done sooner! :D Sorry for my english at some places, feel free to comment  and correct me! I'm open to criticism as well! ;)</p><p>I can thank for correcting the grammar mistakes for my amazing friend! I'll probably post this fic on my DA too if I finally manage to figure out how... ^^"</p><p>If you happen to stop by and read, then enjoy! ^^</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. A Hard Start

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first TFA fanfic, (and my very first fanfic on this site and in overall) that happens 70 years after the end of TFA. I was writing this single chapter like... forever! I hope I can get the second chapter done sooner! :D Sorry for my english at some places, feel free to comment and correct me! I'm open to criticism as well! ;)
> 
> I can thank for correcting the grammar mistakes for my amazing friend! I'll probably post this fic on my DA too if I finally manage to figure out how... ^^"
> 
> If you happen to stop by and read, then enjoy! ^^

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A team of loser Autobots sets of an important mission to find the Core of the Universe! Will they succed? Will they survive? Does anyone care at all? Nope.   
> Meanwhile a bunch of Decepticon are trying to free their leader Megatron from his prison after 70 years. Will they succed? Will they... oh who am I kidding? There will be fight, drama, humor and a crashlanding!   
> I'm trying okay? This is the best summary you'll get form me!  
> See you guys at the end of the chapter!

It has been seventy human years since Optimus captured Megatron the evil leader of the Decepticons and returned to Cybertron. That may be not much to cybertronians, but it is to humans, and a lot can change in seventy years. The Sumdac Systems had been known worldwide, and became one of the most successful companies.  Isaac Sumdac truly changed the world with his robots. After the Autobots left the planet, they were slowly forgotten over the world, but memory about them still went on in Detroit. Another thing was with Europe - memory about them kinda faded during those long years. Some people remembered something about „giant tranforming robots from prehistory”, but that was all and their lifes went on, monotonously and without color . In the year 2158, a warm spring fell upon Middle Europe.  It was afternoon and the classes already ended for the kids in the orphanage. This was one of the city’s biggest and best orphanages. Kids living there could be grateful for that to the orphanage’s founder and current director, who was once an orphan himself. When he grew up to be a successful man –with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work - he decided to became a founder to an orphanage where the kids can feel like they’re part of a family. Since he didn’t have a pleasant childhood at his orphanage he decided to change other’s kids life for better, to gave them a better start in the future, and a warm nice place they can call home. He bought his old orphanage and renovated it. Now he could proudly say that he succeeded with his dream. His orphanage was huge, and it it was divided into two parts. One, the school part, served as a normal school where kids were going every day in school year. The other part is where they lived. As a kids from this orphanage, they had a pretty good life there. The older kids could do house chores for money, and as long as they used the money wisely, they could buy things for themself. They were even aloowed to go out sometimes, the only thing they had to remember was that they have to be back back on time. But of course no orphanage can replace the essence of a true family…

-YOU PLAN WHAT?! – Mex looked at her best friend Annie shocked. Both of them were fourteen years old, and they were one of the orphanage’s oldest kids. Annie and their friend Ben were planning on sneaking out at night to the city for fun. Mex wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea. Sure it was Friday and everyone was planning something crazy for the weekend, but this was a little too much...

-Why? It’ll be fun! C’mooooon!!!  -Annie nudged her shoulder.- You’re coming too right? Just imagine! The big trio having fun in the city! –Mex looked at her seriously.

-Oh, yeah! Nothing can go wrong right? I don’t know, maybe GETTING BUSTED? –She asked sarcastically. Annie just rolled her eyes.

-You are such a party pooper! – she answered, displeased.

\- I am not! I just know the difference between „fun” and „stupidity”! –Mex huffed. Annie crossed her arms at her chest.

-Fine! If you’re not comming we’re going without you! –She turned to see a light brow haired boy comming over to them.

-Hey Ben!  -She greeted him with a smile. He smiled back to her while showing up a fully packed backpack.

-Hey Girls! I’m packed and ready to go! I say we should go around…  - his voice paused a bit on Annie’s sight. The girl just sighed.

\- Save it Ben, she’s not coming! –The boy’s jaw dropped, and looked at his friend with disbelief.

-WHAT?!  You can’t be serious Mex! Even Gina and Clare are comming! –He said refering to the newcomers at the orphanage. The twins Clare and Gina arrived two months ago from another orphanage. Something about Gina, the agressive one, breaking a kid's nose because he told her sun yellow wasn't her color in a "rude" way, as she put it. So they got transfered. Mex looked at him surprised.

\- Say what? Clare? How come she’s going? –Ben smiled awkwardly.

\- She said someone have to „look after” Gina, before she „breaks someone’s neck”. Maybe you should try to look at it this way:  you’re comming with us, to keep us from… I dunno... jumping in the river or something. –He said with a smirk as he saw Mex’s face as she sighed. He knew he won.

\- You won’t leave me alone till I say I go, will you? –Mex scowled as both of her friends showed her a victorious grin.

-Nope! –They said together. Mex smiled and shook her head.

-You guys are impossible! Fine… I’ll go, but I’ll have to talk with Suzy to shut down the security cameras when we sneak out.  –Her friends high-fived. The trio talked about their plans for going out: what are they going to it the city, how and when to sneak out, so nothing unusual. The words „trouble” and „wierd” or „unique” were used every day. The orphanage was full with wierd kids. Not because of their looks. Let's just say they are the type who „wouldn’t-fit-in-just-any-place”. For example Suzy, Mex’s friend, was fourteen years old and she was a pro hacker. And she was getting better with each day. That’s why Mex went to ask her if she could shut down the security cameras until they get out. She knocked on the door because she knew the girl didn’t like when someone jut „bust” in the room. She heard a crude „come in” coming from inside, so she opened the door and stepped in the funniest room in the whole orphanage. It was divided in three parts, and was shared by three completely different girls. The first part’s wall was painted bright yellow and the floor was covered with maps, cards, bags and every stuff a tourist guide needed on the work. This was Diana’s part of the room. The middle part’s wall was painted pink, and every single thing in the room was cute, fluffy and pink. This part belonged to Jeanette, or „Sunny” as her friends called her. The back was Suzy’s. It was rare when she came out, so everything was covered with old food, some trash, and tons of paper. The walls were black as well as everything else in her part. Like always she was sitting at her computer and was doing some „work”. She looked up at Mex with a frown.

\- What do you want? –She asked sharply, this was the nicest tone she mostly used. Mex just smiled and rolled her eyes, as she went in, trying not to step on anything.

\- Bad day with „work”? –She asked, moving her fingers as to indicate quotation marks, soon after she stepped next to her. She looked at the computer’s screen, but she udnerstood nothing from it. Suzy just sighed and turned back to the screen as well.

\- Yeah… I can’t get through this damn firewall! Arrghhh… Anyway, what do you want?

\- Annie, Ben, the twins and I are sneaking out tonight. Think you can… - Suzy just raised her hand as she continued to work on getting through the firewall.

-Consider it done. Two secutiry cameras at the exit, three at the windows and one on the corridor are going down. Just leave me a note on the wall when are you leaving and I’ll take care of it. –She said with a friendy smile, as she pointed at the wall behind her which was full of notes, codes, and a lots of other papers Mex had no idea what are they for. She left her note as she was asked to do, and left to pack a few things for herself. She went to sleep early so, she could get up, but wierd nightmares haunted her in her sleep. Sounds, and screams, wierd shapes and lights...

Suddenly she heard a voice in her sleep, but she ignored it. The bed was waaay too comfortable to get up. Or at least was, untill she felt cold water being splashed in her face. She jumped up and rubbed the water out of her eyes.

-WHAT THE...?! –She looked up to see Annie’s widely smiling face. She seemed to be really proud of herself.

-You overslept! –She said and it was more than obvious how excited she was about the night. Mex jumped out of the bed, and looked at the clock. It was only 01:16. She punched Annie in the shoulder.

-Really funny! Ha-Ha! –She said sarcastically. She still had at least half an hour. Enough time to get ready. She quickly took her long sleeved black shirt, and sleeveless red and white hoodie, and her normal jeans. She told Annie it'll be cold, but she ignored her like usually. She just took her blue T-shirt and shorts with her long gray waistcoat. Mex just rolled her eyes.

-If you catch a cold I'm sooooo not nursing you! –Annie just smiled as she took on her black boots.

-So, who's waking up Ben? –She asked looking up at Mex, as she took her backpack. Just when she asked they heard their door open and Ben peeked in with a wide grin. Clare and Gina was already standing behind him. Annie immediately noticed a red hand mark on Ben's face. She couldn't hold back a laugh. From Gina's especially grim expression she guessed Ben walked in their room while she was dressing. Well he sure got his wake up call.

-Evening ladies! –He grinned as Mex took her shoes and backpack as well. –Let's go! –He announced cheerfully. He was really excited about the night, he only heard from others what's it like to sneak out. It's not like they were locked in the orphanage, they could go out, but only in daytime. It's just wasn't the same as the night. Since Suzy already disabled the security cameras for them, they could sneak out on one of the windows which they left open so they can come back easily. When they made it out of the orphanage without anyone seening them Ben and Annie high-fived with a wide grin.

-All right! We're out! –They laughed as they made it to the bus stop so they can go to the city. There was only one bus, which was going both daytime and nighttime on the same route: from the city to the suburbs and back to the city. The path 12, or as they called it, simply bus "12". They waited a few minutes for the bus, Gina and Ben were already arguing cheerfully, over what will they do first. Mex just sighed.

-If we'll get caught by a cop, I don't know you guys... you just kidnapped me or something... –Annie hung a hand over her shoulder with an encouraging smile.

-Oh, come on! Will you be like this the whole night? Loosen up a little! –She shook her a little. Usually it was Annie who was the serious one from the two of them and Mex got all the stupid ideas... but when Annie gets involved in a stupid idea, then that's equal with complete chaos usually, so it was natural for Mex so stay the serious one tonight, it came like the normal thing to do. However suddenly when Annie told her to loosen up and as she saw Gina and Ben already having a great time... suddenly she felt like this whole thing wasn't such a bad idea after all. They were just going to go out to the city, look around, have some fun, and go back home like nothing happened, right? Who knew maybe it really will be fun! Mex rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. She felt like a burden been lifted off of her. 'All right, let's have some fun!' - she thought at last.

The night went by quickly, they were so caught up in "having fun" they almost forgot about the time. Luckily Clare continuously kept checking the time, so they could make it back to the orphanage before the first teacher arrived, or the sitters woke up. If it wasn't for the calm twin they probably would get late for sure. When they arrived in the city after about an hour of traveling. Next to the bridge above the river, they looked around. The city looked beautiful this late at night... it seemed to be… peaceful. Sort of. For a city. They went walking around the streets, talked about everyday stuff, how terrible the school was as always, what are their plans for the future and such.  They sat in their favourite fast food restaurant, which was luckily open all day and night and they never really asked questions as long customers came, no wonder it was their favourite.  After they finished eating they went down to the river, under one of the bridges and play, or at least tried to play stone skipping. There weren’t many good stones for that, and the fact that they tried to play it on the river didn’t help much. Though Ben always rubbed it in their face when he managed to do it. Then out of the blue, Annie pulled out her graffiti sprays from her overstuffed backpack and grinned. Mex's eyes widened… Of course… She shouldn't be surprised, really. She was used to her friend's "artist side" by now, but she always held more and more surprises. She shook her head.

-Oh no, no and no. You won't paint anything in the city I don't care how much "life" it would give the place, if we get caught, we're doomed for dilapidation! Even I won't be able to talk us out of this one! Serio...–Annie interrupted with a loud sigh, as she put her free hand on her hips, with the blue paint spray in her other hand waving in front of Mex.

-Don't tell me you'll chicken out now! It’s not like I’ll paint something ugly! My artistic skills need freedom and at least it’ll gice some color to the place! –She said dramatically, still waving her hand, like she was in a theatre. Clare stepped slightly between the other two girls.

-Please, Annie… I have to agree with Mex on this one... we can really get into serious trouble by this. A-and besides... why would you want to waste your precious paint here of all places? –She asked with a kind smile and a gentle tone in her voice, like when the people talked to little kids, trying to convince them not to do something stupid what they really want to. Annie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

-Fine! You losers do whatever you want, but I'm going to paint! I'm not going home until I leave a mark! –She said stubbornly and walked off to the wall under the bridge and began to spray her blue paint over it with. Ben and Gina looked at each other and before Clare or Mex could stop them ran after her. The remaining two girls just sighed and shook their head. They walked up to the nearest bench sat down and talked about whatever came to their minds.

Talk, a simple, enjoyable talk. Now that was something nice with Clare. She always listened to the others no matter what. Not matter how much her day sucked, how frustrated she was with her twin, or how bad mark she got at school, she always had time and temper to listen to anyone. She was always calm and understanding. No matter what was the subject she just.... listened. And Mex had a lot on her mind to talk about, especially with school, and about how much she's scared of adoption. That any of them will get adopted, because then she won't be able to see her friends at the orphanage and they'll probably go to another school and... She was about to go on when a loud "Beep-Beep-Beep" sound was heard from Clare's bag, who jumped up.

-I'm really sorry, -She said quickly- but we have to go if we want to make it back on time... maybe you could tell me the rest later? –She asked honestly, not simply out of courtesy. They went back to Annie and the others who was just looking at her finished job with a wide proud, grin. It was a giant fish. A colorful one… it was lught blue, with yellow and orange fins, and it had different kind of green stripes.

-Beautiful fish Annie! I wish I could draw like you... –Clare said shyly, and then showed them her watch– But sadly, we have to go or we'll be late. –Annie groaned disappointedly, so did Ben and Gina, they didn't want to go home just yet, they were having way too much fun for that. Mex smiled and was about to threaten them when suddenly two huge light beams shot through the sky causing almost daylight brightness. All of the kids froze as they saw the two meteors soaring through the sky in flames, Clare screamed in shock, as Annie covered her mouth with her hands in terror as the meteors crashed near the city with a huge explosion. Mex covered her ears if she didn't want to get deaf from the sound of it. As they stood there, they couldn't believe what they just saw...they suddenly heard all kind of sirens around the city as police and ambulance vehicles rushed through the streets to where the meteors crashed. Mex took a step back and whimpered.

-O-okay, I-I really think we should get going... –The others quickly nodded, even Annie, Ben and Gina too.

-Agreed. –They said together and immediately turned to leave as quickly as possible. They didn't knew how, but they luckily made it back to the orphanage in time without getting busted, but they got no sleep at all. However that whole meteor deal and the tiredness made them reconsider that if this whole thing was a good idea in the end, but there was nothing they could do now, except to fall asleep in the classes. In the lunch break they all collapsed to their table not even touching their food.

-I'm beat... I wanna sleep! –Annie groaned her head slamming against the desk. Mex could barely make a smile at that as she rubbed her eyes, but her attention was at somewhere else... She looked at the TV set up for the teachers so they could watch the news between two classes or if they were simply bored, but now it wasn't only them who watched the news with excitement. The reporter was standing at the edge of a huge crater, and there was another one a few meters away... both of them completely empty.

-"...though it is unknown why are the huge craters empty, we know one thing for sure. It wasn't an ordinary explosion, many witnesses said they saw two huge meteors crashing in the night around 03:45, however none of them did actually see the meteors themselves. The police asked the citizens NOT to panic, it's definitely NOT the beginning of an invasion. The police wants the everyone to calm down, but they couldn't give an explanation how possibly the two craters are completely empty. No rocks, no wrecks, absolutely nothing. Maybe the police's wrong? Maybe it IS the beginning of an invasion? If not what's the explanation behind this? -he asked gesturing behind himself- You want an answer to this Mystery? Stay with us, and soon we'll bring you news right from the crash site!" –For a moment everyone fell silent in the room, but in the next second everyone started to talking and whispering. They were all over the mysterious meteor crashing. Clare looked at her friends, unsure of what to say.

-S-shouldn't we... tell the police? –She asked shyly. Her sister immediately shut her up, covering her sister's mouth with her hands.

-No way! You have any idea what would happen if we did? All of us would get kicked out, because we sneaked out! Under any circumstances, we're not saying a word to ANYONE! We just… forget we ever saw them crashing, like nothing happened, got it? –She asked this time everyone at the table. All of them nodded in agreement. There was no question about it. Mex looked back at the TV screen, there was another report going on, with a police man this time. Just the usual "we don't know anything to give out any information yet" line all over again. There was something about this crash what couldn't leave her mind... and it wasn't just the totally empty craters. It was something she couldn't explain...She sighed and shook her head. She knew she had to get over it. Now. She had more than plenty things to do, not to mention her school project! She didn't knew how will she able to concentrate on her project on Monday...

 

****

 

It has been seventy human years since Optimus captured Megatron the evil leader of the Decepticons and returned to Cybertron. That may be not much to cybertronians, but a lot can change even in such a little time. After imprisoning the Decepticon leader and his subordinates, Optimus and his team were welcome as heroes on their home planet. With time, Optimus’s popularity grew while Sentinel’s decreased wildly. In the end Optimus was named to be Magnus, and Sentinel became his deputy. A great time has started for Cybertron and for the Autobots. Jazz became the leader of the Elite Guard, and he opened a dojo in the honor of Prowl and Master Yoketron, where he was a teacher-sensei in his free time. Bumblebee had another chance of joining the Elite Guard, and with hard work he finally succeeded to became one. He wasn’t the only one who’s dream came true. His best buddy, Bulkhead not only became one of the best experst on the Space Bridges, but also he led the Space Bridge Expert Center, where they not only have been fixing the space bridges, but also they have been improving them in many ways. Sari moved to Cybertron, but she often visited her father while learning about Cybertron and her past. Sadly, her father passed away a few years ago, so she had no other reason to stay on Earth, and she moved permanently to Cybertron. She was more than glad for Wheeljack’s willing to help, who volunteered to help her learn her powers, meanwhile learning a lot about her techno-organic structure (of course with her approval)  along with studying the Dinotbots wheneve he had a chance to go to Dinobot Island. Ratchet started to teach young bots to be medics, while Arcee went back to teach at the school. Hot Shot became a Prime with Rodimus’s support. Ironhide became a trainer at the Autobot Academy, even if he never imagined he would do such a thing himself. The success of the Jet Twins made flight a popular thing with their success among the autbots. It was still really wierd for an autobot to fly even with a jet pack, but it was’t impossible anymore. So to sum up, things were going well on Cybertron for everyone. Mostly for everyone…

Sentinel was standing in Optimus’s office. He was told that Optimus wanted to talk with him pronto. He had a very good idea about what was it that he wanted to talk about. His suspicion were confirmed soon enough, as the former Prime now Magnus appeared at the doorstep, turned to him and send him angry look. Sentinel just smirked at him.

-So, what is it Optimus?

-You know very well, what is it, Sentinel. –He handed him a data pad.- Cliffjumper gave me this and it’s about Avalanche Prime’s team. How could you give them that mission? You know very well that the relic they supposed to find…

Sentinel rolled his optics.

-I know, I know, they won’t be able to find it blah, blah blah. Seriously Optimus only this once, use your logic center! Those five are better off the planet for everyone! They’re useless and only in the way, causing trouble.

Optimus wasn’t really ecstatic by Sentinel’s words.

-They’re not useless, they just haven’t found their place yet. – he started -  Like any other young team they need a chance as well.

Sentinel interupted with a laugh.

-You must kidding me! Avalanche a bumbling and clumsy prime, Pacific a peace loving dinobot made by Wheeljack, Salvager a medic afraid of blood, Charge an ex-Decepticon and DareDevil a skinchanger kid. Yeah, I’m suuuuuure they’ll find their place. – he ended with ironic tone in his voice

Optimus sighed and shook his head.

-That’s not the point. You can’t send them to find something that… -he sighed again.- Why am I even bothering? Just call them back. NOW. 

Sentinel shrugged.

-I can’t. They just left a few minutes ago!

Optimus’s optics narrowed and he was about to say something when Bulkhead busted in with a shocked expression.

-Boss-bot, we got a problem!  - he announced as he went in, with a big rumble afterwards...

 

**-Earlier that Day-**

-No, no, no, and NO! DAREDEVIL! If I say „take the medical box carefully abroad the ship” I mean CAREFULLY! Not „throw -it-like-it-was-a-piece-of-junk”!  - Salvager shouted as he walked up to the younger bot. They were packing for their first mission since morning and they were nearly done. Unless the stupid kid messes up everything. What was he thinking throwing the medical kit like that?!

-Come on, Doc! These are just tools! –The gray autobot yawned with a bored expression. He started to have enough of the team’s medic constant yelling. They were here since morning and all he did was yelling at him. The yellow medic sighed and gritted his teeth. This kid obviously didn't knew anything about how fragile these things were...

-Yeah, tools. Tools for fixing you if accidentally, I don’t know maybe I punch you in the face, or break your arm! –He growled at the annoying younger bot. This kid was bringing the worst out of him, and he has to put up with him for who knows how long! And he was just the least of his problems! It wasn't enough he got this stupid kid, their ship is an ancient wreck and oh, here comes the best of all in person!

\- Now, now, let’s calm down. There’s no need to argue over such a thing. We're all friends here. –A taller transformer stepped next to them. His voice was calm and collected unlike his teamates. Intelteligence was written all over him, he was straight and smart looking. Aaaaand he was a dinobot. DareDevil and Salvager turned to him and both of them snapped at him.

-Oh, shut up! We're NOT friends! – As the arguing bots shouted at him, the young Dinobot’s kind smile faded and looked at them with hurt in his optics. He had lots of patience but there was a border for him as well.

-You two are hopeless aren’t you? –He asked them sharply, did they think he enjoys it? Hardly. Both DareDevil and Salvager looked at each other surprised. They didn't expect this kind of tone from the peacful bot.  -You think I like being here with you arguing all day? You’re constant yelling is not very pleasant to the audio sensors!  –He sighed and shook his head.- I... apologize for my tone. I'm sorry. –His smile came back a little shyly and looked at them.- I guess I’m just excited about our mission. Aren’t you? –He asked with a friendly smile what was greeted by two not amused faces.-No. –Said Salvager and DareDevil at the same time. They were more than not happy to be here, but it’s not like they had a choice. Suddenly one day they got informed they were put in a team. DareDevil was curious almsot excited at first until he met his teammates... When Salvager heard he'll be in the medic post, he wanted to resume immediately. He tried everything they could, but they didn't take no for an answer... so much for that. Now he had to endure these two idiots, with their Prime nowhere to be found. Suddenly DareDevil yelled at him, while kneeling at the ship and looking under it.

-Hey, Doc-Bot!!! Is it supposed to leak like that? –He asked pointing with clueless expression at a crack on the ship. Fluid was dripping from it in a steady rhythm. Salvager sighed and looked up at the ceiling almost pleadingly.

\- Where is the Prime when we need him...?

 

Meanwhile on the corridors a white and blue mech was walking looking around, a bit confused at another corner.

-Great... Just great! It's not enough I'm late, now I'm lost! –The young mech scratched the back of his helm when he heard steps from the other direction. He looked up and sped up his steps. 'Maybe I can ask someone for direction...' -he thought when he suddenly crashed into a dark gray mech who just turned at the corner. Maybe those steps where closers than he thought... He rubbed his forehead.

-Ouch... I'm very sorry I wasn't looking whe... –He opened his optics to look at the mech who was also rubbing his forehead from the crash and he saw a Decepticon insignia on his chest. Well normally he would jump back and get ready for any dirty and deadly trick, but the way the symbol had a cut through it, made him stop in his apologizing. Suddenly he saw a flash of fire... he heard the far sound of shouting, but he was quickly brought back to the present when the other mech spoke looking at him sharply with his red optics.

-Watch where you're going kid, my reflexes aren't as good as they used to be! Are you listening to me? –He asked firmly. Something was oddly familiar about that tone...The young bot quickly blinked and shook his head, to clear his head from those weird memory flashes...

-I...I uh... I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to crash into to you... I was hoping you could help me. –He said trying to pull his mind back together. The other mech snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

-In what? –Maybe he was in his older age, but he was a bit too.... grumpy for the other autobot's likes. He tried to ignore the spike sharp tone, and straightened himself, trying to look taller, and maybe a bit more confident than he actually was.

-I'm Avalanche Prime, and I'm late for our take off with my team and... I'm kind of lost. –He admitted with a frown. The old mech just raised an optical ridge.

-You almost surprised me there lad. My name is Charge, and I'm also late. Since I have a feeling we're going to the same hangar, how about we go together? –He offered with a small friendly smile. Avalanche just blinked at first, the bot's name seemed so familiar and now he could see the Autobot symbol on the old bot's forehelm. Where did he meet this bot before? He was obviously an Ex-Decepticon and there isn't much of those... but somehow he couldn't bring himself to remember. Weird...He quickly shook his head to clear his mind and nodded.

-I would thank the help I really... wait, what do you mean we're going to the same hangar? –He asked confused once more. The other bot just sighed and rolled his optics.

-You said you're Avalanche Prime right? -The young prime nodded - Well I assume you remember your team got a new member added in the last moment. A weapon expert. Well that's me. –Avalanche just stood there completely dumbfounded. Suddenly he felt very stupid... that's where Charge's name were so familiar! Now he remembered, he read about the old ex-decepticon when he was informed about the extra member, and got his informations.

-I... uhhh... okay this is embarrassing... –He mentally cursed himself, when he heard a loud shout behind them.

-YOU'RE DEAD YOU HERE ME??!!!! –The next moment he was nearly run over by a younger autobot, who looked like someone who's running for his life, and guessing by the following yellow and very angry mech that was the case. The medic nearly slammed Avalanche in the wall as he ran past him. The duo was followed by a worrying dinobot who was trying to calm them down with not much success.

-Salvager please calm down, this won't solve anything! You're supposed to heal, not kill! I'm sorry, we're coming through!– He apologized storming through Avalanche. The medic's answer was merely a dangerous growl.

-WATCH ME! –He snarled and with that the trio disappeared at the corner. Avalanche and Charge looked at each other with wide optics and blinked. After a full minute Charge finally spoke.

-I guess that was our team. –He mused looking at the direction where more shouts came from.

-Maybe we should go after them? –He asked not really sure himself what to do, but Charge gave him his answer.

-Nah, I've got a better idea, come with me. –He said and both went through shortcut, Charge in front, Avalanche closely behind.

Meanwhile, Salvager chased DareDevil down the corridors, followed by Pacific.  The young bot looked behind him and laughed.

\- Hey Doc, anyone ever told you, you're even more uglier when you're angry? –The medic growled and ran faster to catch that little bastard. Pacific apologized to every single bot whom they almost ran over, not that any of them cared. Most of them were simply glad they were leaving Cyberton, finally they'll have a little peace around here.

-I'm sorry, coming through! Excuse me! –Right at the corner he nearly run into Cliffjumper who was reading some important data pad, or more like Pacific guessed, since the minibot seemed to be pretty deep in reading it. He quickly apologized before running past him.

-I'm very sorry Sir, please excuse me, have a nice day! –Cliffjumper barely had time to look up and catch a glimpse of Pacific, the young dinobot was gone so fast at the next corner. He was about to call him back, but then just shook his head and turned back to reading. 'I'll just give it to Optimus later...' He thought, and soon as he saw a very interesting part in the report, he gained the speed where he was about to go.

Pacific didn't notice any of this, he was too busy catching up with his teammates, as he was determined to stop them from killing each other. He already heard DareDevil laugh again at something, and Salvager snarl in fury. “Why can't they just be in peace? Everything would be so much easier!”, he shook his head on the run, not even thinking about stopping, and gaining speed to catch the rest of the crew. DareDevil was just about to get into another turn when suddenly there was a leg in front of him out of nowhere. It was too late to stop or do anything, so he tripped over the blue leg and hit the ground hard. Salvager tried to stop, grotesquely trying to get his balance back and waving his arms in process like he was about to fly, only to fell down like DareDevil and crash on the young bot. Pacific joined them shortly after, and as he couldn’t stop himself on time, and he landed on top of them with a loud "clang".

-GET OFF ME! –Salvager growled trying to push the dinobot off of him with no success. Pacific groaned and climbed away a few steps, stroking his tail.

\- Ouchouchouch... –He looked up to see who tripped them and froze immediately. DareDevil didn't bother to look up, he just jumped up and cursed rubbing his back plating, his grin turned into a frown. He glared up at the tall blue and white mech who stood in front of them his arms crossed over his chest.

-Can't you watch it you jerk?!  –He shouted up at him in anger. Pacific gulped and pointed at the blue and white mech with an apologizing smile.

-Uhhhh... DareDevil... Maybe you want to rethink that sentence... –The youngster looked at his teammate curiously.

-Why should I? Who's this guy? –He asked turning back to the blue and white mech, and noticed another mech too, some old timer. The younger one smiled patiently and introduced himself.

-I'm Avalanche Prime. – He didn’t let his smile grew as the younger bot’s jaw dropped and looked at him once more, before shrugging.

\- You’re not much of a first impression aren’t you? – Salvager immediately jumped there and covered his mouth with his servos, glaring at him. – DareDevil, shut it. – He growled warningly, before turning to the prime with an apologetic smile.

\- Please forgive him, poor kid was born as dumb as a dinobot! –When he catched Pacific’s insulted look, he awkwardly scatched the back of his head. – Uhhh… sorry Pacific… but they ARE dumb… – Pacific narrowed his optics and opened his mouth to start to correct the medic.

\- Well if you want to know so muc… – He quikckly got interupted  by the older mech before he could start his who knows low long lecture. – If I don’t mistake, we should be in the launching bay in about 5 klicks so I say we should get going. Immediately. – Avalanche noded in agreement.

\- You’re right, introductions can wait when we took off. – They all noded and turned to go back the way they came, while DareDevil stared at Charge’s Decepticon symbol and then smirked at the old bot.

\- Ex-Decepticon, huh? Guess I better watch my back then. – The mech just looked down at him, with a blank expression, for a second it seemed like he wasn’t going to say anything, until he smirked himself, pointing at the stripes on the youngsters face.

\- Skinchanger, huh? I guess then I better watch my back myself, we don’t want anything… funny to happen do we? –He said with a tone that struck DareDevil right in the stomach, he stopped right in his tracks and stared at Charge first in disbelief then he narrowed his optics and his expression turned into deep anger, while the old mech just continued walking like nothing happened.

When they got back to their ship the BattleFighter everyone took their positions. The atmosphere was pretty tense to say at least. DareDevil glared at Charge with a look which you could say that would kill, who didn’t seem to care about the kid, while Salvager was freaking out over that Pacific is going to pilot the ship, who was equally nervous and enthusiastic. While Avalanche stood on a little platform behind his consols and cleared his throat, trying to look confident, but he had to admit himself he was as much as nervous as anyone else here. It was his first mission as a Prime.  He can’t screw this up… not this. A promise he made himself back in the past...

\- All right everyone, are we ready? –DareDevil showed a thumbs up, not even looking back, his legs already on his consols as he leaned back in his seat looking up at the radar with an already bored expression.

\- Sure, radars good!

Salvager smacked him the back of the head and growled at him.

\- Get your legs off of there idiot! –He turned to look back at Avalanche and noded. – All systems ready. We’re good to go, Sir! –The Prime seemed to be more than surprised at the term „sir”, he quickly smiled and shook his head.

\- It’s just Avalanche. „Sir” makes it sound like I’m some kind of rank addict. – Salvager noded to sygnalize he understood. He smiled to himself and turned back to his consols. Avalanche again cleard his throat.– Okay, we’re cleared for take off. – he said, trying to sound as much dignified as he could. Pacific took a deep breath and took the controls. The take off went surprisingly smoothly, only Salvager begged silently for his life while the dinobot piloted the ship off Cybertron. When they reached the orbit Avalanche turned to his crew.

\- All right Team, is everyone clear of our mission? –The Prime just sighed when he saw four totally clueless optics blink up at him, so he pushed a few buttons on his console and a picture of a blue crystal ball looking thingy popped up on the main screen. Everyone even DareDevil turned to look at it while Avalanche continued.

\- Our mission is suppossed to be to find this relic, called the Core Of The Universe, they say it’s a mysterious energy force, the one who posses it will have all the power they can imagine in the universe, they say it’s been lost for million’s of years. And we’ll be the one to find it. –He said with complete confidence in his voice that they’ll find it. He went on about the details of the legends about the Core Of The Universe, while Pacific seemed puzzled as he exchanged a look with Charge then looked back at the picture. Charge was about to say something to Avalanche when suddenly the whole ship was shaked and was followed by an audio sensor ripping explosion. Avalanche had to hold on his console not fall off his feet, while Pacific ended up on the floor, the others managed to hold on to their seats.

\- What the slag was that?! DareDevil what’s on the radar? –The young bot looked at him confused, his head still dizzy from the explosion.

\- Radar?

\- Yeah, you know, that screen you’re suppossed to be looking at behind you!!! –The medic shouted at him, causing DareDevil to jump in his seat. He quickly turned to look at the readings, which caused him to look even more confused.

\- Uhhh… I think this thing is broken… it just detected a Decepticon ship, but… that can’t be right… this thing is like ancient! I mea… –Charge jumped up from his seat and ran to the back of the room to the weapon controls.

\- DareDevil, to the point, where is that ship? –The gray bot at first just blinked at the ex-Decepticon, but then he quickly turned back to his radar.

\- Uhh… it just came out from behind the Moon! That’s wierd… why didn’t we detected it before…? Hey, who made YOU boss anyway? –He looked back the weapon expert ex-Decepticon, then turned to look at their leader with an incredulous look. The Prime seemed to be frozen in shock as two more missiles were headed their way from the Decepticon ship.

 

**\- Meanwhile abroad the Decepticon ship –**

\- Control Spiral you IDIOT!!! Who said you can control the weapon system?! –The femme growled at their medic from behind him. The mech just grinned at her and winked behind his red visor.

\- Reeelaaax, May’! They’re burning up already! Just let me have some fun finally will ya? Sitting here for five orbital cycles made my fingers twitchy! –He laughed as he fired two missles at the Autobot ship. He really missed this, blowing things up, and watching the enemy’s ship go down in flames. They were hiding behind this damned Moon for about five months by now, almost six, just waiting for the perfect moment to launch an attack on the Trypticon Prison and free Megatron and the other Decepticons, and just when they were almsot ready, this stupid Autobot ship had to show up! Suddenly a deep growling voice interupted the Decepticon medic’s thoughts.

\- Hydra, report! –Their leader growled behind them from his commander chair, he slightly leaned forward in his seat which meant he was interested in the sitatuion himself. Looks like it wasn’t only Control Spiral who got bored in this last five orbital cycles.

\- Sir, it looks like somehow their ship’s EM field scanner detected and fried our cloaking circuitries, we’re perfectly visible on the radars! –Before he could finish his report he got interupted by the outraged femme.

\- That’s immpossible! Double check that! I made sure our cloaking was perfect, they could only fried it like that, if they were scanning for our ship on purpose! And we all know no one, scan for this ship, it’s one of a kind! –This time she got interupted by the leader himself.

\- Mayhem that’s enough! The DeathBringer is one of a kind indeed, but not the only one. –He said in a firm tone, that immediately silenced the femme, who just noded quickly. –My _apologise,_ Sir. –She said with a slight irritation in her voice. The leader decided to ignore her for now, he turned back to their sitation and ordered the medic, who still didn’t move from the weapon controls.

\- Control Spiral continue the attack on the Autobot ship, I want them in pieces the faster the better, got it? –The medic rubbed his hands together with a wide grin and took the control again.

\- You got it Caliber… uhhh I mean Sir! –He quickly corrected himself before he got himself thrown in the brig. –Hey, Hydra get us closer will ya? – The pilot just silently noded and turned their ship toward the Autobot one.

 

**\- Back on the BattleFighter –**

\- Okay, that’s it we’re toast! Half of the weapon system got either blown up or fried by the second missile, and one of the side thrusters is half torn off, this piece of old junk wasn’t meant to take something like this! –Salvager growled and slammed his fists on his console.

\- Uhh… they’re getting closer… thought you might wanna know that. –DareDevil said looking up from his radar. At that, Salvager jumped up from his chair and strongly gesticulated at the ship’s pretty big windshield.

\- Oh, REALLY? No way, guess what, we can SEE that! –He yelled angrily at the kid while poining at the very obviously approaching Decepticon ship. The younger bot jumped as well, glaring up at the yellow medic.

\- Hey, I’m just trying to help here! –He yelled back sounding clearly offended. Pacific wanted to stop them, but he had to pilot, and Charge was obviously busy with trying to defend them with the little weapons they have left. The dinobot looked up at their prime who was standing still as if he turned into stone. He heard the arguing go on as well, from the other two bots, and the Decepticon ship was only getting closer… this wasn’t good. Another missile hit them and the whole ship shook from the impact like it was about to fall apart. Both DareDevil and Salvager ended up on the floor with a loud crash. Just after that he heard Charge growl and slam his fists down onto his control panels.

\- Oh, frag this! Hey, Prime we are going to end up as dust like this, what do we do? –He turned to see Avalanche who was still just staring at the aproaching Decepticon ship. He saw a flash… a flash of a memory maybe? Or was it just a long forgotten dream? He saw fire... felt the heat that could easily melt his armor... and shouting … this time much closer... much more  real. He felt someone dragging him out, far far away, and saw Charge in front him shaking him by the shoulders.

\- Kid, snap out of it! Pull yourself together! –Charge shouted, at him, and that looked like it did it, because Avalanche shook his head trying to focus his mind back on their currect situation. He looked at his teammates. Salvager and Daredevil were on the floor trying to get up without tripping each other, while Pacific tried to maneuver the ship, but with how many shots it took already, it wasn’t easy, he looked at Charge when he heard the alarm go off and the ship’s lights turned red in warning. Great, just what they needed. Avalanche clenched his fists, and quickly thought through their current situation. They didn’t have much chance of survival if this kept going. He had to come up with something fast… right here right now… Their precious time was running out with every nanoclick... They could call Cybertron for backup, they were close enough to some bigger cities to… _close enough._

\- Pacific! Connect the Space Bridge Expert Center, and patch me through to Bulkhead! –The young leader earned suddenly widened optics from his teammates.

\- Shouldn’t we rather call for help? –Asked Daredevil while pushing Salvager back to the ground. The Prime pointed in Cybertron’s direction.

\- We’re too close to Cybertron, and we don’t know how many or how strong Decepticons are on that ship, we can’t risk them getting any closer, **specially** not to Kaon, we must get them away from Cybertron! So, Pacific call, the Expert Center and tell them to open up a long ranged space bridge, they can use our ship’s signal for the coordiantes. –The Dinobot nodded and immediately started writing the message as fast as he could. Avalanche looked at Charge who went back to the weapon controls.

\- How’s our defense? –He asked the Ex-Decepticon, who looked at him like he was crazy.

\- What defense? –Avalanche blinked at the reply. _Oh… so it was THAT bad…_

 

**\- Back On Cybertron: Space Bridge Expert Center –**

Bulkhead was reading through some reports when the call came. It came from the… Battlefighter? Didn’t they just take off? Maybe there some trouble with the ship. He sighed and answered the call.

\- This is Space Bridge Expe... –Even before he could finish the sentence, a panicked voice interupted him.

.:This is the Battlefighter! We are in trouble… Cybertron might in trouble as well, we are being attacked by a Decepticon ship, just above Kaon, we need a long range space bridge, to transwarp them away from here! The Battlefighter is a wreck and… oh, Primus where are my manners, I’m so sorry to interrupt you Sir!:. –Somewhere in the background was that the sound of an… alarm? What the hell was going on out there?!

.: Oh REALLY?! Manners?! :. –Someone shouted at the other side of the call. Bulkhead flinched before he jumped up, suddenly realised what did he just hear.

\- Hold on a second! Decepticon attack?! That’s impossible! –There was a dry laugh and he faintly heard something like „try looking out the window” from far before the reply.

.:I’m sending our coordinates right now Sir! You can use it to open the long range space brigde! Don’t worry about us, we will be fine, we can make it out of range. Just please Sir hurry up, we don’t know how longer we can hold on! The Decepticon ship is just abo… :. Suddenly there was a loud noise, mabye of an explosion, and the comminication broke. Luckily the exact coordinates appeared on the other screen, as Bulkhead ran our and saw there was indeed a battle going on int he sky… well a one sided battle.

\- I gotta warn Boss-Bot about this! –After Optimus didn’t responde to his comm-link after the third try, Bulkhead transformed and sped off as quickly as he could. He already sent the coordiantes down to Space Bridge Control, they were just waiting for the order and the bridge was ready to open. He just hoped the Bots up there can hold on a little longer…

Bulkhead transformed back to robot mode in front of Optimus’s office. Cliffjumper was standing in front of the office, for some reason, but he didn’t care right now, the mini-bot probably brought some datapads needing to be signed. Without thinking Bulkhead busted in with a shocked expression on his face. Sentinel was here too, but he couldn’t wait, not now.

\- Boss-Bot! We got a problem! –He announced and just as he stepped in a rumble followed shkaing the ground. Before Sentinel could have shouted at him he ran to Optimus. –There’s a Decepticon attack out in the orbit! –There was another rumble, stronger and closer this time.

\- There’s an attack against Cybertron?! –Sentinel shouted as Bulkhead rubbed the back of his neck.

\- Not exactly…

 

**-Back On The DeathBringer vessel –**

-Dawww, I missed! –Control Spiral whined, at the loss of two missles that missed the target. He heard Mayhem fuming somewhere behind him, but he knew she wouldn’t anything. Just before he could start shooting again, Hydra turned to their leader.

\- Sir, I reccomend to cease the fire temporary, I think they’re up to something. It might be better not to waste any more valuable ammo. –He said looking up at their leader, who was standing by now. He seemed to take the suggestion into careful consideration, then noded.

\- Control Spiral, cease fire. –After a click he aded. –But start charing the main canon.  –That earned surprised looks from his crew. Specially from a certain outraged femme.

\- But Sir! If we want to stick to the plan and attack the Trypticon Prison, we’re going to need tha main canon! We can’t waste the DeathBringer’s strongest weapon on a pathetic little autobot ship! –She stormed in front of her leader, forgotting her place. She worked months to perfect that weapon and now they’re going to waste it just like that?!

\- SILENCE FEMME! –Roared Caliber on the edge of his patience. – We might have surprised them with the attack, but we don’t know how many or how strong Autobots are on that ship! I said charge the main canon and that was an order!! –Mayhem stepped back clenching her fists. She looked away with a deep frown.

Control Spiral grinned as he turned to charge the canon while a smaller mech jumped up next to him in his seat.

\- Huh? What? Are we attacking already? –The younger mech looked around drowsily before yawning.

-Nice of you to join us Lupus. –Control Spiral remarked sarcastically with a grin, while Hydra rolled his optics as he turned back to the controls.

**\- On Cybertron -**

\- … they requested a long range space bridge, using their coordinates but…  they said they can make it out of range, but it still might suck them in.–Bulkhead finished as all of them hurried outside and looked up.

\- Magnus, Sir, if they’re above Kaon, their target might be...–Cliffjumper spoke up, but Sentinel interupted him. Like usually.

\- The Trypticon Prison! Optimus, we can’t waste our time with space bridges, we have to shoot they out of the sky! –Bulkhead blinked with big optics.

\- But we could hit our guys too! – Said Bulkhead who was about to blow his fuse, and beforeSentinel almost started shouting at him, Optimus interupted after thinking through their possibilities.

\- Open the Space Bridge. If it won’t work… we’ll shoot. –He said finally, with unease in his voice.

Bulkhead noded and commed the Space Bridge Nexus.

 

**\- Back On The Battlefighter. Again. –**

**-** Everyonedamage report! –Avalanche looked over his crew quickly. The Decepticons stopped shooting, but that doesn’t meant it was good. The ship was a wreck of course he could see that, already, but if he wanted to think of something, he needed to know what he could work with.

\- Communications are dead Sir… I mean Prime, the navigation system is still online though and we can still move but just barely. –Said Pacific as tried to get the ship to move a little faster.

-We got nearly zero weapons left, half of them got either blown up, or fired, and I can’t acces the remaining ones, the system keeps shutting me out! It must have gotten damaged as well. –Charge reported, as he tried and failed to acces the supportive weapons once again, but he got a screenful of ’ACCESS DENIED’ once again.

\- Some weapon expert… huh, maybe the ship knows better than to trust a Con. –DareDevil grinned after he managed to finally stand up from the floor and looked at the radars. Charge didn’t even look up from the consols, he just smirked.

\- Hey, if it’s stupid enough to let a skinchanger on board, it’s going to let me use the weapons in no time.

DareDevil was about to bite back to that, before he got reminded that he was supposed to deliver a damage report, by a smack to the back of his head from Salvager.

\- Oh, right, radars are all broken. –He said with a frown as he looked over his radars. Salvager gritted his teeth, as he looked up at Avalanche.

\- It’s no good, the whole ship is redlining, we can’t do anything!  Unless they hurry up with that fragging Space Bridge we’re going to… –Suddenly something blue shined up before them, and the next moment a space bridge opened. The Decepticon ship disappeared in it, in a nanoclick, but before the could realize what was happening, it started to suck them in as well. Good thing about long ranged space bridges? It can take you basically anywhere in the Milky Way. Bad thing about them, is that they tend to get a liiiiitleee bit intense. Like suck in other ships nearby, specially if opened out in space like this.

-The ship is not fast enough, I can’t get us out of here in time, everybody hold o...–Before Pacific could finish his sentence, the space bridge pulled them in, and blue light consumed them. The next thing they saw was that Cybertron was nowhere near them, and another planet’s gravitation zone was pulling them down, and they were being shot at. Again.

This time the Battlefighter was given no mercy, it was like a meteor shower only with explosin meteors. The ship shook as another piece got torn off of it, maybe of the outer armor if they had any luck. Which they probably didn’t. The windshield’s glass cracked, after the next two hits.

\- Heh, guess they didn’t take our little trick well. –DareDevil looked up with a triumphant grin, until he noticed the wide crack through the ship’s windshield.

\- We won’t take it well unless we get out of here! –Shouted Charge and looked up to Avalanche, as if asking what should they do now, but the young Prime seemed as puzzled as the rest of them. Heavy silence fell upon the ship, only the sirens kept screaming. Looks like there’s no way out, if they tried the escape pods, they got probably blown up by now, or heavily damaged, and even if they worked, they would get shot on the spot they left the ship.

\- So… this is it? –Pacific asked what everyone was thinking, looking down at the floor. Could things end like… this? Not exactly how he planned his future, that’s for sure.

\- NO! I WON’T… I CAN’T EXCEPT THIS! –Salvager snarled as he slammed his fists on the control panel leaving dents. –This is the Battlefighter for Primus’s shake!!! It’s suppossed to be the greatest ship of all times!!! Fight you peace of junk! FIGHT, FRAG IT!!! –He screamed while he kept hitting the panels. The others just stared at him, feeling helpless. There was nothing they could do at this point…

-Guess he finally lost it for good. –DareDevil frowned, while suddenly on Charge monitor the so far red screen turned green with ’ACCESS GRANTED’. He barely had time to blink in confusion before he found himself falling and crashing against the back wall of the bridge, as the ship’s remaining systems suddenly onlined… and the Battlefighter charged towards the Decepticon vessel!

-WHOA! What in the name of… Pacific what are you doing?!?! –Shouted Daredevil holding onto his chair for dear life.

\- I am not doing anything! –Answered the dinobot from the floor, trying to get up but with no avail.

Charge rubbed the back of his neck as he looked up, just what the bloody hell was that all about? Suddenly the ship took a sharp turn, and started shooting the enemy’s ship, while starting to fly towards it as well. It didn’t make any sense, he couldn’t access the supportive weapons five minutes ago, and now… it was firing on it’s own! Was it some kind of emergency auto pilot they didn’t know about? He didn’t have much to think about it, as the Battlefighter crashed into the Decpeticon ship, and both of them started to fall down to the planet.

As the Battlefighter entered the atmosphere the windshield cracked even more from the heat, it was close to shattering to shards. The ship shook as something got torn off, and burnt in the eat. They were soaring through the night sky, above something that looked like a city of some sort. The ship itself caught fire and a few seconds after that they crashed into the ground, as the back of the ship exploded.

Daredevil slowly came to his senses. Everything… hurt. And it was dark. Fear flooded his spark as his first thought was that he became blind, but as he reset his optics, he realised he didn’t. His optics functioned normally, it was just simply… dark. He sat up with a groan rudding his aching head, looking around. His optics adjusted to dark somewhat, and he could see that… whoa, everything was a mess. There was rubble and glass everywhere, the windshield must have broken to pieces in the crash. He saw the fade shape of others silhouettes too, either lying, sitting, or being in very awkward positions… thanks to Primus none of them went gray… not that he cared about them of course.

\- Am I dead? –Asked Salvager while trying to push himself up, with not much success.

\- Nah, we’re not THAT lucky. –DareDevil snorted with a grin. That earned him an ugly look from the medic. Yep, he was alright.

\- What happened? –Pacific stood up looking around to see if the rest of his teammates was okay. Salvager rolled his optics, as he stood up as well.

\- We crashed genius. C’mon help me get the others. –He waved to the dinobot as he went to grab Charge, who was still unconscious on the ground. With DareDevil’s help they managed to get him out through the broken windshield. Meanwhile Pacific went to get Avalanche. He had the worst luck than anyone else. He was trapped beneath some rubble, that fall on his legs. He looked up at the Dinobot with relieved sigh.

\- Is everybody okay? –He asked as the dinobot started clearing away the rubble easily.

\- Yes, we are fine, Charge is still unconscious, but doesn’t seem to be hurt, Salvager is taking care of him at the moment. –He answered while looking at the Prime’s leg if it was safe to move it. His right leg got crashed and it was bleeding, but it looked like Avalanche had bigger problems at the moment, and it was nothing Salvager couldn’t easily fix.  He helped stand up holding him under the armpit and taking him outside as well.

Outside Salvager just finished taking care of Charge and turned to look at them.

\- He’ll live, nothing major, he just took a hit to the head, he’ll be fine. –He said while Pacific sat Avalanche down on the ground with his bleeding leg. He turned to Salvager.

\- I am fine, but Prime’s leg will need a patch up. –He said nodding in their leader’s direction. Salvager frowned but noded and nodded whileturnin to Avalanche.

\- C’mon, lemme take a look at… –His optics widened when he saw the bleeding leg and if it was possible for a cybertronian he paled. –… thaaaaat… –And with that he fainted crashing to the ground like a bag of rocks. Avalanche and Pacific blinked at each other then down at their fainted medic.

\- Nice… –Daredevil facepalmed with a sigh.

 

**\- Far, far away on Cybertron –**

\- Well, we took care of the Decepticons. –Sentinel said, as everybody else frowned in the room.

\- Yes, we did, but lost our own in the process. We must find them. –Optimus said standing up behind his desk. Sentinel rolled his optics.

\- IF they’re still alive of course. –Optimus shot him a glare.

\- You aren’t helping Sentinel... and don’t think I’m done with you... You sent them on that wild goose chase mission in the first place, WHICH I can thank to Cliffjumper for reporting, because if he hadn’t told me… - he sighed - I’m not sure you would ever have. –Sentinel made a face, but Optimus ignored as he turned to Bulkhead.

\- Where did they got bridged to? –At first Blkhead didn’t answer just rubbed the back of his neck.

\- Uhh… you see Boss-Bot, since we were in a hurry and all… I told the guys back at the Nexus to hurry up just pick a random coordinate. And since it wasn’t a planned briding, it might take a while till we can find the one we used… –Optimus noded, cleary displeased with this whole situation they got into.

\- Alright, Bulkhead take Cliffjumper, go back to the Expert Center and try to find the right coordiante, we must find them ASAP.

\- You got it Boss-Bot. –Bulkhead nodded along with Cliffjumper as they both left the room.

Optimus and Sentinel just stared at each other for a second. It looked like Sentinel was about to start shouting when Optimus spoke up.

\- Get Jetfire and Jetsorm ready as well a few scout ships, we’re going to investigate the moons and closer sectors to see if there are any other Decepticon activity nearby. We have to make sure Cybertron isn’t threatend by an invasion. . I don’t dare to even imagine about what would happen if the Cons in Trypticon would break free somehow.–For a second it looked like Sentinel was going to argue with him, like usually, but before he could a voice spoke up rom the corner of the room from behind him, nearly causing him to have a spark attack.

\- Got any games for me to play, oh great and powerful Magnus? –The fembot stepped out of the corner’s shadow, with a confident smile on her faceplates. It wasn’t easy to tell if she was being sarcastic or just… just random.

\- Would you STOP doing that? –Sentinel heaved glaring at the fembot. She just stuck out her tongue at him playfully. Optimus’s frown depened.

\- Sentinel call the Twins and the scout ships. –He said firmly looking at him intensively and expectantly. At first the Prime just glared back, but after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he left while muttering curses. Well… muttering loud enough to be heard down the hallway.

The black armored fembot closed the door behind him and giggled.

\- Primus, I’ll never get tired of freaking him out. –Purple optics looked up at Optimus behind her blue visor. Optimus just shook his head.

\- Well, I will, and I’ll get tired of your little games too. You know very well, I’m against your… job, so to speak. –The femme just rolled her optics at that.

\- Sooooo?? –She asked almost impatiently.

\- You know what you have to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and critism are welcome! And yes, yes I suck at summaries! See ya!


	2. Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With now both, Autobots and Decepticons stranded on Earth, what will happen? Will they get home? Will they compelte their missions? Nah.  
> But they will fight, and they'll trash half a city! Yay!

**Transformers Animated: The New Generation: United Universe**

**Chapter 2: Darkness**

_Sometimes I let my dreams get too close. That’s when the nightmares start. I find myself in a world where I don’t belong, among people I don’t recognise. It’s a nightmare. I see shapes… people maybe. I hear screaming. Then I realise I am the one who’s screaming. That’s when darkness comes…_

 

****

 

\- Okay, it’s my turn. You see it, I see it, and it’s a piece of useless junk. –DareDevil said with a frown as he held up another one size bigger wrench for Salvager. He held out his hand for the other one to take it from the medic, but instead he got smacked in the head with it.

-Ouch! HEY! –He whined rubbing his aching helm.

\- Quit it you moron! Just because Pacific is busy it doesn’t mean I have to deal with your slag! –He growled while going back to fix what he can on their ship at the moment. Well… the kid was right about one thing. The ship was a wreck. He sighed as he tried to ignore the idiot, when Pacific came in.

\- Prime wants to talk with us. –He said waving at them to come with him.  Salvager just rolled his optics, what was it this time?

It’s been three solar cycles since they crashed... and things didn’t look good. Actually, they were... pretty dark. Literally.They found themselves in some dark place, probably underground, not knowing where they were, how did they get in here, where are Decepticons they were attacked by, where in the pits of Sea Rust were their home planet. Anyways, Salvager suspected they probaly crashed on unstable ground, so it collapsed beneath the ship, causing them to fall into an underground cave. The rubble closed the exit above them, creating a huge crater on the surface. The medic called it a sinkhole… whatever that was. How Salvager knew something like this, was beyond Daredevil. At least they didn’t have to bother to hide the ship. It looked like this place was full of underground caves and tunnels, and they were massive. They could stand at full height and not be bothered by hitting their head into something. At least it was comfy, a little too dark though.

\- What is it this time? –Asked DareDevil non too politely, but by this point, none of them could bring themselves to care about his attitude. Only Charge frowned at the kid, making himself clear that he won’t tolerate such behavior. He was leaning against the rock wall, his arms crosed before his chest next to Avalanche who was sitting on the ground. His leg got patched-up, though he could thank it more to Pacific than Salvager. The medic became only useful when the dinobot stopped the bleeding, and cleared away every trace of blood. He was able to walk and even run a little by now, but he still prefered sitting. Well, actually Salvager made him prefer it, with some intense death threats.

\- To be honest I wanted to ask you. How’s the ship? How soon can we get back to our mission? – He asked slowly and calmlymainly Salvager, since he was taking care of most of the repairs. The medic just blinke at him for three seconds, before erupting.

\- WELL HOW DO YOU THINK?! ARE YOU BLIND OR JUST STUPID?! –He shouted on the top of his vocalizer, widely gesticulating at the ship, deep anger written all over his faceplate. –Just look at it! It’s a total wreck but I think you can figure out that much!!! Any other bright questions Captain Obvious? –He finished with a mocking tone, still fuming like a volcano. He glared daggers at the Prime, who just sighed deeply.

\- Look, uh... –He paused for a second, looking for proper words. –I know I’m asking a lot, but we have to continue our mission as soon as possible, it’s very important that we find the... –He was interrupted by Pacific, who hesitantly stepped forward, looking more nervous than usually.

\- Please excuse me for interupting Prime, but, about that… uhh... –His distress was more and more visible with next words. –There might be a problem with our mission. You see… the Core of the Universe… uhmm... –The dinobot looked away, and mumbled something, which caused Avalanche to look up at him in concern.

\- What is it Pacific? –Pacific tried to say it two more times. When Charge saw they won’t get anywhere at this rate, he stepped forward, looking the Prime in the optics.

\-  It doesn’t exist. It’s just a myth. –He said loudly and clearly, with no hesitation about it. – A very believeable one however. It’s still proven non-existent, it’s simply not common knowledge though.Sorry to disappoint you kiddo. –He finished.This time it was Avalanche’s turn to blink in confusion. Even Salvager and Daredevil were surprised at that.

\- W-what? But… our mission… –His optics were just flying across the place, trying to process what he just heard. – But... Then... why would they send us to find something that doesn’t exist? –His voice cracked a little in the middle of the question, as if he was struggling to get the words out.

-To get rid of us, of course. Honestly, what did any of us ever do, except causing High Command trouble? Hmm… let’s see... We have… –Charge turned to look over the team. –A wannabe dinobot, a haemophobic medic, an ex-decepticon, a skinchanger and you. –He pointed at each of them as he was counting them, then turned to Avalanche at the end of the sentence. Everyone seemed to sink into themselves at Charge’s cold but true words. Even Daredevil avoided optic contact.

\- They have every reason to want us off planet for a good while. –He finsihed crossing his arms and closed his optics.

Avalanche stared at the ground before him in silence, running through the past few days in his head.

\- I… I just can’t... I can’t believe this! – He shouted in disbelief and distress, with small dose of anger. –I can’t believe they would do something like that! –He clenched his fists. –We could have been killed! They wouldn’t even care would they? –He paused, with a sigh, closed his optics, hiding his face behind his own hands and shook his head. –And now we’re stuck on this planet, with a group of Decepticons with no means of…– He was speaking faster, and faster, and faster... Oh, no. Charge has seen this reaction before.

-Hey, Hey, HEY! – He yelled, and quickly snapped his fingers right, in front of Avalanche face to get his attention. - Don’t break down on us here kid!! – He stopped, then awaited a reaction from him, before going any further with what he have to say.The young Prime looked up at him, with wide optics. Yep, he was pretty close to panic attack. – They say we’re a bunch of losers, and let’s face it, we ARE. Well, SO WHAT? – He jelled at that, making couple of them jump in distress, and put rest in confusion. –That doesn’t mean we’re going to sit here helplesly waiting to be killed by some Cons! Yeah, reality is harsh, kiddo, sometimes even our own betray us. Get over it, IT IS not time or place for this kind of scenes! You’re suppoed to be our leader! Our Prime! So quit whining and pull yourelf together! Let’s show them!– Pacific, Salvager and Daredevil shared some confused glance. The motivational speech they understood, but what was up with the „let’s show them” part? Show what to who? They were just a bunch of losers just like he said, that, They were just a bunch of losers just like he said...THAT, they couldn’t argue with.

However, those seemingly out of place words triggered something in Avalanche. Something from a loooong time ago. _We aren’t going to just sit here, and wait for those Cons to finsih us off! Pull yourelf together! Let’s show them!_ Those words… triggered something. The young Prime looked up at the ex-decepticon’s red optics. _I’ll show them._ Avalanche shook his helm to clear his head.

\- I… I’m sorry. You’re right… The… the Decepticons are still out there somewhere. –He rested his forehead agaist his palm, trying to gather his thoughts. It was is fault. He should have done more reseach on the subject of their mission. He was careless and let his excitement get the better of him. He can’t let that happen again. His team needs him. Well… they just don’t know it yet. He looked up at his team.

\- Alright.– He cleared his throat, then spoke with as much of a serious and proffesional tone as he could manage at the time. –Everyone, get some rest. We have to be ready for anything, with the Cons still out there. Salvager and Pacific, see if you can get the communication system back online, or at least if it’s possible to send a message back to Cybertron. –His voice was still a little weak, but at least now, he wasn’t about to break down.Charge smiled, and noded. Now, that was much better.

\- Actually… I might be able to offer some help about that. –Pacific spoke up. –The planet we crashed on? It’s called Earth, inhabited by humans. They are familiar with our race, but it has been more than forty stellar cycles since any direct contant... –He paused a little, deep in his thoughts. –Sooooo… I would recommned to stay low… until we know more about what has changed that is. – A little smile showed up on his faceplate, he seemed really excited by the fact that they, indeed, crashed on Earth. DareDevil, on other hand, had no idea what was so great about that.

\- And how do we exactly plan on „staying low”? –Daredevil asked, sarcatically rolling his optics. Pacific’s smile extended even more. He was expecting such a response. Before he could answer, Salvager smacked the kid upside the head.

\- The BattleFighter did an emergency environment scan when we crashed… –He started with a tone as if speaking to little kid who can’t understand a thing. –…scanning in the local lifeforms, terrain, and vehicles. Alt modes, you idiot! – He finished, almost shouting at him. DareDevil clueless expression was immediately replaced with an offended one.

\- I won’t be needing one those thank you very much! –He crossed his arms as he shook his head, with something like a puty face. –Alt modes… yeah riiiiight. –He grumbled to himself quietly.

 

****

 

Mex yawned above her breakast. She got up early, so she can start her project. The sooner she will start, the better. She had to write an essay homework about the History of Technology, and she managed to get permission to go to the city’s main library to collect more information. That place had everything. Ten story tall. Nine floors full of delicious books, one floor filled with computers for faster research. Yummy.

She looked up at the TV, which was now turned off, since barely anyone was at the canteen this early. She couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander. There wasn’t any news about the meteor crash since Saturday… they hadn’t find anything. The meteors just… disappeared. Mex wondered… would she be so concerned if she hadn’t witnesed the crash personally? She shook her head to stop herself from going too deep into this, and decided to focus on the work she had to do instead. _If I manage to finish this early, I will have a whole afternoon free to do whatever. Aaaall of the afternoon just for myself_! She thought while going out.

On her way out, he got caught, by a girl in yellow sweather with purple bangs. She held a paper in front of Mex’s face, who just smiled and pushed the paper away.

\- Good morning to you too Diana. –She greeted her with a chuckle.

\- Hey, Mex! Do me a favor will ya? –She aked pointing at the bottom of the paper. – The Teach’ asked me to take out the Art Class to the History Museum of Art, ’cause she’s busy and I need you to sign it here.

Mex looked over the paper before frowning.

\- I dunno… shouldn’t Annie sign it? I thought she was the Art Class’s mentor. –She said unsure of wha to do. Usually mentors took care of this kind of thing. What’s a mentor you ask? Special classes, after school activities, had mentors, to help them with their subject. Mentors, organised trips, houe contests, or even museum visits for their „class”, they were almsot like teachers, but of course to do something, they needed the actual teacher’s permission. In a sitation like this, when the teacher already gave permission, Diana till needed Annie’s signature, since he was the Art Class’s mentor, that she’ll take the reponibility for the class for the mu seum visit’s time. Mex couldn’t give the permision instead of Annie…

\- Yeeeeaah… about that. She’s asleep… you try waking her up! I would like to live a little longer thank you very much… –Ah, that explains it. Mex smiled and shook her head.

\- Look, I won’t sign, this… I can’t. If you want to get it signed to much, go send in Amy to wake Annie up, but I gotta run now, you know essay week and all. See ya later! –With that she turned to leave, with a friendly wave. Diana signed and put the paper away. This won’t be an easy round that’s for sure.

 

****

 

After some rest, everyone returned to their business. Charge went out to explore the tunnels that led from the cave they were in, to who knows where. Meanwhile Daredevil went out to explore the outside, after Charge found a smaller tunnel that led up the surface. There was no force on Earth or Cybertron that would stop him. At first they didn’t even let him close to that tunnel. Then later, when he became too annoying, they made him promise to scan in a proper Earth alt mode, when he gets out in the open. He can’t run around in cybertronian vehicle mode, that way he would only draw more unwanted attention to himself, from both humans AND Cons. Of course he could take care of himelf. At least this way, everyone can get some peace and quiet. FINALLY… or so they thought. No such luck though. The young skinchanger was chatting over the team commlink on purpose, making sure everyone was hearing him. Why? Better question is: Why not?

There was no end to his blabber, sometimes mixed with the frustration over humans. Every single detail he had to describe in an unnecessary river of words.

.:…I’m telling you, these fleshies are just in the way, I just don’t understand what the Magnus saw in them, back in his Prime days… anyways, you guy should see this, it’s like…:.

.: SHUT! UP! :. Salvager growled over the commlink, while he approached Avalanche, who was still sitting at usual spot near the Battlefighter, resting his leg… or being careful not to make the medic even madder, than he was at the moment. It looked like Daredevil finally shut up, but only Primus knew for how long. The medic just let out an annoyed sigh, and shook his head, with his two fingers on his forehead.

\- Uhhh… do you mind if I… sit here? –He asked Avalanche, who just smiled and shook his head.

\- No, actually, I would appreciate some company… –He said tapping the ground next to him, at the same time aimlessly drawing something on the ground with a rod. Salvager smiled and sat down. They were sitting there in silence for some time, before the medic sighed once again, and awkwardly cleared his throat. Avalanche stopped his movements and looked at the medic without turning his head too much.

-Uhmm… look… about…earlier. Sorry. –He said shortly, looking away. He said the next words slowly, one by one. –I have nothing against you, big guy… Really, I swear. It’s just… You know.  This stupid situation…Just please don’t make me explain what I mean... –He grumbled in the end and rolled his optics. The young prime just blinked at first, before smiling widely.

\- Nah, it’s okay, you had every right to shout at me. –He said turning to look at his scribble on the ground. His tone turned uncomfortably serious. –I messed up. Big time. If someone… –He started carefully picking his words. –… got me into a situation like this and started asking stupid questions I would have gotten pretty mad too. –Salvager looked at him for a moment, as if considering, that if he really meant it or not. In the end, he smiled and noded. After that, they sat in silence for a while.

\- Aaaaannndd… About the ship... –He broke the awkward silence between them. – …look, it’s…gonna sound crazy, but…uhhmmm... okay I’m just gonna say it. – His voice betrayed his anxiety. He took him a while, and then continued - I think this ship is ALIVE. Don’t look at me like that! I told you it’s gonna sound crazy! –He quickly held up his arms as if he was surrendering, as Avalanche looked at him, like he just said he’s a Decepticon. He blinked slowly, before shaking his head, trying to wrap his head around the idea.

\- Alive? Alive as in… like us? Like an Omega Sentinel? –He asked carefully, unsure what to think of it.

\- Well… it DOES sound ridiculous if you say it like THAT. – The medic continued. –But yes, like us. – He paused for a brief moment, deep in his thoughts. –Remember…? When we were out there and… he charged at the Cons’s ship… that was neither us, nor some kind of glitch. It was… a conscious and coordinated attack. Just please… Don’t tell me you haven’t felt it too! –Salvacher pouted at the end. Avalanche looked up at the ship, thinking for a good long while.

\- I…. – He started, but it took him a moment to gather his thoughts. –I… do consider myself an open person, so… let’s pretend for a second, the ship, against ALL common sense, IS alive.But then… That leaves a question…What do you plan to do about it? –He looked back at his medic, curiously. He didn’t say ship wasn’t alive but… it was highly unlikely. What happened out there was possibly a mere… accident.

Salvager seemed to take his answer into careful consideration. He looked up at the beaten ship, before looking back at his leader seriously.

\- I’m going to save him. –He said shortly, with fierce detemination.

Avalanche nodded at tha. –I wouldn’t expect any less. –He smiled, patting Salvager’s shoulder. The medic had an unusually look in his optics as he looked over the ship, as if trying to figure out where to continue the repairs.

.:Hey uhm, guys sorry to break up the toching moment… uhh… no, actually I am not, but I think I have a Decepticon on my tail!:. Daredevil voice’s came over the commlink once again. Salvager was about to shout at him, that it’s not funny, when there was a loud screeching sound like the young skinchanger just took a sharp turn. Avalanche stood up leaning againt the wall a bit.

.:Are you sure it’s a Decepticon? There are local planes whi…:.Before he could finish there was a loud explosion sound and the commlink shorted out for a few moments.

.: Phew… okay that was a little too close for comfort. I don’t think it’s an Earth plane, unless those things fire laser beams around like that… :. DareDevil said when the commlink came back online. Avalanche and Salvager let out a relieved sigh.

.: We’re on our way, try not to get killed until we get there!:. Avalanche said while already sending a ping to Charge and Pacific about the emergency.

.: Yeeeeaaah, riiiiight, you know what? –He asked offended, that his suriviving abilities got questioned. I’ll try to lose him in the city to buy some time.:. Before Avalanche could answer Salvager was already shouting through the commlink.

.: **NO**! Don’t go in the city!!! You’ll lure him right to…:. The line broke on Daredevil’s side before he could finish. The medic snarled in frustation as he heard only static comming through the commlink, angrily kicking a rock away.

.: Well, either he got shot, or he just hang up on you. What are the orders Chief? :. Charge spoke up through the commlink already on his way back. Avalanche dragged his hand down his face with a sigh.

.: Okay, Charge, meet up with us on the surface, and…:. He suddenly paused when something yellow flashed in the corner of his optics. –Salvager where are you going? –He asked after the medic, and turned around into his direction. Salvager was already by the nearby exit, and after his question, he sharply turned back. Avalanche quicly noticed that his hands were clenched into fists.

\- I’m going after that idiot! –He answered with fury in his voice. –I can’t wait for the old timer to crawl back, we don’t have time for that! The kid’s going to lure the Con right into the city. And when they get there the flier will have the advantage, from his bird's-eye view. Daredevil’s going to end up cornered in a dead end in no time!– He snarled.

.:Ouch.:.

Avalanche looked at him confused for a second, before letting himself smile a little.

\- Well, that’s new… I thought you hated him. –He spoke out loud. –I wouldn’t have thought you actually care about him... – In the meantime Pacific showed up, looking more than nervous about the whole thing.

\- I don’t care about him! – Avalanche couldn’t finish before Salvager blew up again. –He can get shot for all I care! But I do care about the city, do you have any idea how hard is it to build one of these, even so small as this one?! Those two will trash the place if we don’t hurry! –With that he ran off, with his weak excuse, leaving Avalanche and Pacific behind, who just blinked for couple seconds, and looked at each other. Shortly after, Avalanche followed after Salvager as well.

\- And here I thoguht he was worried about the humans… –Pacific shook his head with a sigh as he ran after his leader.

 

****

 

Mex streched after she put the final book back into it’s place. She was done with her essay, though it didn’t go as fast as she would have liked. It took her almsot four hours, and now she was starving. She decided to drop into a fast food restaurant on her way home. She also found some pretty interesting books about different cultures around the world. She also took out that art guide book for a few weeks for Annie, that she’s always talking about, but god forbid she would actually come in to the library and get it for herself. Mex just exited the library and headed towards the nearest fast food restaurant when she felt something... wierd.

Was the ground… shaking? Before she could even decide if she actually felt it or it was just her imagination, it was gone. _Yeah… I probably just imagined that._ She thought. _I got up earlier than usually, perhaps I am just too tired and…_ But before she could finish her thoughts, the shaking returned.Slight, almost noticeable shaking. It lasted a second longer… and… _Is it just me, or it felt… closer? Wait, how can a shaking get closer anyways?_ Her thoughts started running like crazy, trying to solve what the hell is going on.

She just… stood there, staring at the pavement. There was top hours in the city center, and a lot of people were walking next to her, occupied with their affairs, sometimes pushing her aside. Everyone seemed unaware, or maybe too occupied, to stop for a moment to feel what she felt. Life was going on around her… as if… unmoved by that slight sign. Maybe it was an earthuake? But… here? That’s impossible. they never had any eartquakes around here, if she remembered right… She was just about to look around to see if someone, if anyone else noticed it too, when a third shake came, so strong that she almost dropped her books. That exact moment when quake started, she heard an explosion a few streets away. Suddenly life froze on the street for a moment, the loud street noise, amplified by people’s loud talk, became an eerie silence.People looked at each other in confusion, many people stopped their cars, and those who didn’t, either started pushing their horns, breaking the heavy silence, or leaned out the window to shout.

Mex looked in the direction she thought she heard the explosion come from. _Maybe there was a gas leak?_ She thought before the second explosion hit, at the end of the street, earth, glass and debris flew everywhere, with a thick smoke cloud rising up. Some people started screaming, who were closer to the explosion and ran in the opposite direction. A few people who managed to keep themselves together a little better, ran to those who got injured in the explosion, couldn’t move, being stuck under fallen pieces of buildings, or have fallen unconscious.

Mex just stood there in shock. The books that she was holding, fell down on the ground, released from her tight grip. As she looked around, survival instincts kicked in, everything in her just screamed to run… It was simple solution. Explosions bad. Run or die. Simple, yet … she wanted to help. Something inside her told her to help, when something else told her to run… There were already enought people helping right? _Right? …_

_No…?_

Before she could make up her mind, a car raced out of the think smoke cloud, with some kind of jet on it’s tail. The jet was flying low and it was obviously going after the gray sports car. Both of them looked really wierd, nothing like Mex ever seen before. As her eyes followed the machines, she had a strange feeling… Of something she lost so long ago… She felt like she knew these things somehow…Before she could sink into it, she reminded herself to stay sharp, although she couldn’t help but wonder… What was that? Was she… going insane? Was it the shock? Or maybe she’s just hallucinating? She still had her attention at the gray car, which now took a sharp turn, and stopped in the middle of the street to avoid crashing into already abonded car.

Mex blinked. It was the matter of split second, she didn’t even have enough time to get surprised. The gray car just… stood up. It just… STOOD UP. Just like that. Its parts started shifting and moving and… changing, and the next moment there was a gray robot in the middle of the street.Her mind, completely blank at what happened, then it started to work again only couple seconds later. Oookaaaay…definitely nothing like she has ever seen before.

\- You want somethin Deceptiscum?! – The gray robot shouted at the jet. It. Just. Talked. TALKED. Then when she thought it couldn’t get any more intense… the next moment the jet… transformed too, into a similiar but taller robot. It had piercing red eyes, if Mex didn’t new better she would have thought she saw… evil in them for a moment before the robot raised some kind… weapons? Judging by how the gray robot jumped for cover it probably did. The taller robot fired, blowing up the car the smaller one jumped behind a moment ago. People screamered on the sreet, running in the opposite direction from the robots, pushing, and showing each other out of the way.

Mex froze on the spot, her eyes wide. She felt something crawl up her spine… a feeling. A feeling she never felt before… or did she? It felt too familiar, and it made it all the more frightening. It was panic and fear. Pure, animalistic fear.

_Run…_

Someone crashed into her, nearly causing her to fall over. She managed to stay on her feet, but she didn’t need anything else, she turned and started running. As fast she could, as fast she ever did.

 

****

 

Daredevil got back onto his feat, or rather would have if he hadn’t been slammed back to the ground by something yellow as another blast soared barely above his head. He found himself on the ground again, with someone keeping him down as the dust settled a little. He felt himself being dragged into an alley… before getting punched in the middle.

\- YOU IDIOT!!! –Salvager yelled at him so loud, his vocalizer almost shorted out. Daredevil rubbed his aching torso and was just about to shout back when another shot almost hit them and they both ducked for cover.

\- Gee, thanks, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear right after being shot at! –The younger bot grumled back. They leaned against the wall as much as they could trying to stay out of their attacker’s sight.

\- So, what now? –Asked Daredevil looking up at the yellow medic. Salvager took a deep breath befor carefully peeking out at the corner of the alley. The dust nearly settled, he could almost clearly see the Decepticon jet, with the two red stripes on his cheeks… wait what?

\- You tell me. He seems to be… one of your kind. Aren’t you guys supposed to be rare or something? –Daredevil made a face like he was about to jump on Salvager and choke him, but the yellow medic grabbed his helm and turned it into the con’s direction… and the red stripes were indeed there.

\- You gotta be kidding me… –He stared with a dropped jaw. Another skinchanger? Here of all palces?

The Con choose that moment to turn and look right at them as they were staring at him behind the corner of the alley. _Scrap…_

The Decepicon raised his basters at them the same moment their commlink suddenly came online.

.: Alright mechs, on my count to three you make a run for it, unerstood? One.. two…:. Charge’s commanding voice came through the commlink. They looked at each other not knowing what to expect, until suddenly just before he could shoot them, the Con got shot in the back and crashed on his front with a pained yell. Some kind of earth jet soared through the sky above them and a voice yelled through the commlink.

.: THREE!:. With that Charge took a turn in the air and headed back towards the Decepticon who was about to get up from the ground. Salvager and Daredevil shot out of the alley in heir alt modes at the same time, the medic slighly behind the youngster. Daredevil couldn’t help but glance back as Charge took another shot at the Decepticon… and missed. The missle hit one of the abandoded cars causing anoher explosion and smoke to rise up.

\- WATCH THE BUILDINGS YOU…!” –Shouted back Salvager as he hit the breaks when they reached a relativley safe distance. They heard more weapons firing but the sounds became… disatnt. Daredevil transformed as well trying to look through the smoke and flames for any sign of the Con. Even after some of the dust had settled he couldn’t see him, but he did see Charge head toward them, transform mid-air and landed gracefully next to them.

\- I managed to force him back a few streets, but I think he already called for backup, good thing ours is nearly here. Our orders are to stay back and do not engage in a fight unless completely necessary… –Daredevil snorted at that before rolling his optics.

\- Yeeeahh… don’t you think it’s a little too late for that? – Salvager was about to whack him on the back of the neck, but Charge was faster, stepping up to the kid and shoving him backwards roughly. Daredevil almost fall back, but he managed to keep his balance, glaring up at the ex-decepticon.

\- Listen up, _skinchanger, –_ Charge began, basically spitting the word „skinchanger”. –you might not realise this, since it seems your processor capacity is srongly limited, so I am going to say this simply so you can understand: You’re in trouble for this! Big time! Just because Avalanche overlooks your selfish, egoistic, incompetent behavior, that doesn’t mean I won’t. You got that? –He growled menacingly at the kid and giving him another hard push backward to emphasize his words. –Next time, you’ll get no warning, and don’t think for one moment I’ll go easy on you! –When he finnished Daredevil looked up at him with clenched jaws, he knew it wasn’t just an empty threat, not from this… this Con. However his wounded pride demanded vengeance, but he knew he couldn’t just jump him. Charge didn’t move an inch, but he was ready to react if the kid made any move on him. The atmosphere around them was intense, and going heavier and heavier with every second

Salvager eyed them nervously wheter he should step in or not until he felt a hand on his shoulder from behind. He jumped with a yelp, turning around ready to punch whoever was behind him in the face before his fist was caught by a larger hand and he was met facet o face with a green chest.

\- Whoa, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to frighten you… –Pacific quickly apologised letting go of the medic’s fist and taking a quick step back with an apologetic smile. Salvager glared up at him and was about to shout when he noticed their Prime also arrived.

Charge who was still glaring daggers at DareDevil, now stepped up to him and said:

\- The Con took cover a few streets back, his back-up can be here any minute now, so far we have three optio… – Avalanche raised his hand to tell him to stop, he didn’t even let him finish what he was about to say. He already decided which option they’ll go with.

\- We stay and fight. –He said looking at his team confidently. –We’ll show them.

\- I’m sorry? –Asked Pacific as if he was unsure he heard his leader’s words right.

\- We stay and fight. –He repeated loud and clear. –They’re Decepticons, they won’t stop just because we run away. IF they’re after us, they’ll track us down all the same. No matter where we run, where we hide, they’ll find us. We have to show them, right here and right now, we have to hold our own. Daredevil go and evacuate the remaining civilians. Salvager go help him, and secure the unstable buildings. Pacific, and Charge you’re with me, against them. –When Avalanche finished, Charge couldn’t help bit let himself smile a little. _At least the kid’s getting better with giving orders…_ He thought as he took out his favourite gun, ready to fight.

\- WHAT?! Wait waitwaitwait… Hold on a nanoclick here guys! – Daredevil jumped in with distressed, disbelieving tone. –Why don’t you send Pacific to take care of the humans?! He ain’t a fighter! I AM! –Daredevil exclaimed, and for once Pacific was eager to agree with him. He wasn’t a fighter… never had been and never will be. Avalanche just shook his head in disagreement.

\- No, we have better chances in the fight with a Dinobot on our side, than someone your size, you’re smaller and faster than us, you can help more by evecauting the humans, trust me on that, now go! –It looked like Daredevil was about to continue arguing, until Charge made a very small, step forward, only for the young skinchanger to notice. It was a sign. One more argument and he’ll keep his unsaid promise of making him hurt. Daredevil gritted his teeth, but then he noded before transformed and sped off to help the humans… urgh.

 

 

****

 

Hydra growled as he was pacing back and forth in the alley he was forced into by the Autobot flier… no, not an Autobot. He would recognise that flight style anywhere, that wasn’t an Autobot, it was a fragging traitor. And there was that kid too… did his optics played tricks on him or…? No, it’s impossible, what are the chances that there is another skinchanger right here of all palces? And now he was even under strict orders right from Caliber to stay put, until he others get here… great. Just great. He clenched his fists an blew out some air to cool down. He had to focus, he couldn’t lose his temper now. He opened his optics to the sound of something aproaching. He looked up to see some kind of… animal? of this planet headed his way. A mechanical animal. It stopped right in front of him, looking up at him with bright red opitics, before transforming and revealing his teammate, Lupus. The kid didn’t seem to be in a good mood, not that he cared.

\- Can you believe this?! –He gestured intensely at himelf and his new beast alt mode. –The Deathbringer scanned me a wolf! A fragging WOLF of all the disgusting creatures of this planet!! –So apperently it’s called a wolf. _Better keep that in mind. –_ Hydra thought as he looked him over. He didn’t see much difference on the kid, he already had a beast form to begin with, and this… wolf creature was pretty similiar to it.

\- Shut your mouth kid! –He groaned. The kid immediately went silent, blinking in confusion. –It could be worse, you could be a skinchanger! Now, THAT would be a real catastrophe. – He murmured, not looking at him anymore. A military helicopter transformed above them, and Control Spiral landed next to them, grinning like a maniac, totally ignoring Hydra’s razor sharp glare directed at him.

\- So how we gonna play this? –He asked his teammate with a playful tone as if nothing happened. Hydra looked over both his teammates, who seemed to be really eager to kick some Autobot tailpipe. Taking his urge aside to punch Control Spiral in the face, he allowed himself a little barely visible smile.

\- Alright, you want to play? Here’s how we’re going to play this…

 

****

 

Mex let the swarm of people take her, she didn’t even think, she just ran blinded by fear. She couldn’t help it. What was she supposed to do when there was two… giant, tranforming… robots, trashing downtown?! _You should have stayed behind to help the injured…_ A little voice kept nagging her in the back of her mind.  „ _There were already enought people helping right?” You’re such a coward._ The little voice kept mocking her.

she couldn’t help but stop in her tracks. _Coward._ She didn’t even care when people crashed into her from behind nearly tripping her over. That single word echoed in her mind. She stumbled out of the panicked crowd and pressed one of her palms against a wall. She tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t help. Not this time. She raised her head, her vision was a bit blurry… maybe from the panic? People were still running and screaming, while they were already streets away from those robots. Mex felt panic take her mind over again as she though about them. Those piercing red optics… they full of hate, and anger. She looked around almost in fear the robots would show up here too, though she knew very well they were streets behind them. She felt her knees tremble, she had to get away from here… but… _Coward…_ She couldn’t. She saw the people blinded by fear, running for their lives, scared… she didn’t want to be one of them. She had to help the injured.

Mex looked at the panicked crowd. Some of them hurt, limping, slower than the rest. They were pushed aside, some of them nearly ran over. There was some people helping them but… _There were already enought people helping right?_

-No. –She answered out loud, shaking her head, and keeping her eyes closed for a few seconds. When she opened them again, she knew what she had to do. Her sight wasn’t blurry anymore, she managed to calm down a bit, she took one last deep breath, before turning and heading back in the direction she came from.

 

****

Thick clouds of smoke rised up from the streets, debris, rocks, and blown up car parts covering the surface. The civilians were still being evacuated from the surronding buildings and streets. Some of the cops and ambulances have arrived but they couldn’t get close enough because fo the aboned cars in he middle of the street. Sirens went off in this part fo the city, with an annoying shierk. humans were running around, the braver ones saving the injured of their kind, the others saving themselves.

 _Annoying little bugs… -_ Hydra though as he jumped out of his cover and started hooting he Autobots ocne again. They basically didn’t even fight back, just held them back. They weren’t even putting up a proper fight. _What a let down.._

\- Hypno, Lupus take the front, I’m going in, we’re ending this! –He commanded as he tranformed into his cybertronian jet mode and took off in the air searching for one particular target. It took him less than 2 minutes to find him, there he was, hiding behind a demolished building like a pathetic little coward with that leader of theirs. He took a deep dive and aimed right at the traitor, right at his scratched Decepticon symbol on his chest. He sped up, he had to get closer for a killing shot, and it was only a matter fo seconds before they noticed him. Charge looked up right at the moment he was in the shooting range, but he wasn’t fast enough, Hydra easily could have killed him, he still had a clear shot for a few seconds. He could have finally killed Charge. Right here right now, like he deserved. And yet Hydra…. hesitated. And that was just enough for the ex-Con to push his leader out of the way and jump after himself, because Hydra was no fool. A missed shot was better than no shot at all. If he didn’t fire at all, his paranoid leader might start to think he had other reasons to get close to the Autobots, betray them or whatever he came up with next. So he fired, knowing he would miss them. The alreay unstable pillars (or what was left fo them) of the building cracked even more, as the explosion shook the remains of the building. Hydra took a sharp turn and flew upwards, and out of their sight.

Meanwhile on the destroyed street Charge yanked Avalanche back to his feet. The Prime was still a little week on his legs.

\- We have to pull back, we can’t hold it like this! –Pacific shouted to them from the other side of the street, also hiding behind a heavly damaged building. Charge rolled his optics. The kid was a dinobot for frag’s sake! And yet he was ducking for cover at the first sight of violence like a lost sparkling… _Better do something about that._

\- We have to hold them back a little more! At least until the remaining humans are evacuated! –Avalanche shouted back, nodding to Charge in thanks for helping him up. Things didn’t look good, okay they weren’t that bad as a few days before out in space but things didn’t look much better either. They couldn’t ignore the humans, but he also had to make sure his team made out alright as well…

He looked up for the sound of Charge taking out two of his weapons… _Just how many of those things he carries around?_ –Avalanche wondered.

\- Hey, Fossil! Think fast! –With that Charge throw one of his weapons to Pacific who barely managed to catch it, before snapping his head in the old timer’s direction obviously offended of his alt mode being mocked.

\- Who are you calling fossil?! –He snapped, before his optics drifted to the object in his hand. As if he just realised he was holding a weapon, he stumbled back with a yelp and drooped the weapon. – What. Is this? –Pacific looked back at Charge once again pointing at the weapon.

The ex-Decepticon resister not to face-palm right in the middle of the battle.

\- Mind you, that’s a highly sensitive and perfectly functioning plasma blaster, so I would aprectice it, if you didn’t break it genius! –He snapped back instead. The kid was supposed to be smart, and yet he acted like a complete idiot. Pacific made an amused face and said:

\- Excuse you, I know exactly what it is, actually I already have plans to make a better, advanced version, if we’ll be lucky enough to survive this mess! I’m not used to battle fields, okay? –He gestured widely with his hands at the ruins and the rubble. The poor dinobot looked like he’s about to collapse from the pressure.

 _Geez, sensitive much?-_ The ex-Decepticon thought while shaking his head.

\- Well if you would just take bloody blaster... –Charge growled but Pacific interupted him indignantly pointing at the gun.

\- I am NOT going to use that thing. As a pacifist I believe all conflicts can be settled peacefully an… –Before he could even finish the Decepticon jet soared above them, firing a series of plasma blasts at them. All of them jumped for cover as half the street exploded and rubble and huge asphalt pieces fall everywhere.

\- Oh, yeah? Tell that to them! –Charge yelled at the young dinobot. Partially for being pissed off as hell, and partially to see if the kid was alright. Pacific crawled out from udner that looked like the remains of a truck and was about to give a sharp answer when Avalanche interupted them.

\- Enough! Both of you! Pacific calm down, Charge don’t just throw blasters at people! We have a battle to fight here. –Avalanche said almost as if scolding them, before turning to peek out from the corner. –We have to get closer. –He said finally.

 

****

 

Mex was helping up a girl around her age, who’s leg had been stuck under some rocks that fall off a building in the last explosion. Her heart was racing in her chest as she looked around in search for an ambulance car. The girl’s leg was bleeding badly… _What do I do?_ She mentally asked herself. She had to stop the bleeding.She looked around for some safe spot, then she took her farther away from the fight and put her down the ground. She tore off the sleeve off her shirt and wrapped the girl’s leg with it. The girl didn’t even say a word, she was really pale, obviously due to a shock.Mex couldn’t help but wonder… she remembered her morning coversation with Diana. This small little detail that back didn’t seem important made her really glad she didn’t sign that paper… otherwise they could be in the middle of this mess as well. At least they were safe…She tried to help the girl stand up again, before two ambulance men ran up to them and took the girl with them. Before they could turn to Mex, or ask her, even to take her away to a safe spot, she was already gone, back where the evacuations were still in progress. She was about to take a turn at the corner, when suddenly a familiar huge figure appeared, and huge gray leg almost stepped on her. She fall back with a scream landing hard on her aft.

-What the hell?! Watch your step!!! –She shouted with a sharp glare up at the gray robot. The mechanoid’s head snapped down and looked right at her. As if realising what she just said, she caught her hand before her mouth staring up at the robot. It didn’t seem to want to harm her though, it just looked her up and down, it’s bright blue eyes squinting at her before frowing in… disgust?

\- This is stupid… – It growled before turning and running off in the direction of the battle between the other robots.

Mex blinked after it in conufsion. It hadn’t killed her… She didn’t know wheter to be glad about that or not… something seemed off here. There was something about the robot… the blue eyes maybe? Or… was it something else?

-It doesn’t matter now… I gotta pull myself together! –She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts back together. She looked around, it looked like most of the people got evacuated by now, the last of the people were running away now. _Maybe I should get going too…_ She thought, as she turned to leave as well. So far she was lucky, and maybe she shouldn’t push her luck about survival. She was already much more luckier than most. So far she got away with a few bruises and smaller wounds.

Meanwhile behind them the fight seemed to get more intense. Mex heard the robots shout some things at each other, while more and more explosion ravaged this part of the city. Suddenly there was an earshattering explosion next to the running people, who barely had time to look up before the building next to them started collapsing above them.

Mex’s eyes widened and pupils narrowed upon danger coming closer and closer, going straight at her and others. Mex curled down and raised her hands above her head to shield herself from the incomming building parts. The movement, clearly being useless in such situation, came as pure instict, trying to protect against the danger that is coming. Deep down, something else was telling her to protect few people around her, even though it wouldn’t be enough to save anyone at this point.

She heard a strained growl above herself and waited to be smashed into a pulp but… the smashing part didn’t come. She carefully looked up… and stumbled back as she saw the yellow robot above them, shielding them from the collapsed rubble. It semmed… hurt. Can robots even be hurt? The thing gritted it’s teeth and opened his eyes… they were blue just like the other one’s. Everyone was frozen in shock staring up at the yellow mechanoid above them.

-Get… away… from here... –It grumbled, looking down at them. Part of the group ran away or even crawled out of the way, as fast as they could, but the rest still remained frozen in shock. Mex also stood still, but not because of shock, nor fear… The realization hit her like a bag of bricks.

 _It… saved us._ She thought, staring into those blue eyes. There was definitely something about these robots she couldn’t grasp… Her eyes wandered downward and settled on the symbol on it’s chest… a strange red symbol. Mex had never seen it before and yet it seemed so… familiar. Then it hit her. _They’re trying to help us…_ She was sure of it. These… blue eyed robots were trying to save them, trying to help them. The other one didn’t kill her when it had the chance… and now this one jumped int o save their lives… Mex felt her heart starting to race once again. She turned sharply and snapped at the few people standing still.

-You heard the big guy! Move it or lose it everyone! Hurry! –She shouted, even pushing some people to get them moving out of the way. She was about to run away as well, but she halted after spotting a movement with the corner of her eye. The robot kneeled down, and then rubbed it’s… shoulders? After staring for a while she realized that the robot’s shoulders must have damaged from the heavy weight that crashed down on them. So it WAS hurt. She looked up at it, and for some reason, she couldn’t help but be worried. She swallowed down her still remaining fears and took a step closer to it.

-Are… are you okay? –She asked carefully, looking into it’s eyes. It looked back right at hers, and for a moment it looked like if it wasn’t sure if it should answer or not. Then he looked away and growled.

-Do I look okay to you?! –It looked back at her, as if blaming her personally for it’s injury. Mex tried very hard not to get offended. She didn’t have time for that anyways. She was about to ask something else, but a series of explosions distracted her not from afar, and the robot spoke again.

\- Where did that MORON gone off to?! He should be the one taking care of you humans… I’m supposed to be securing the buildings, but instead I have to do his part of the job! –This had startled Mex, who blinked in surprise. She was about to point out that by the looks of the other buildings it did a pretty lousy job too, but with the last moment she decided to keep her mouth shut bout that. It didn’t seem to be a type that would take criticism kindly…

\- Who are you looking for? –She asked tilting her head. This robot saved lives… the least she can try to do is help it…no. Help HIM somehow.

\- Daredevil. –He said right away as if it was obvious. Mexpulled a face at him, and crossed her arms over her chest.

\- Yeah,riiiighht, thanks, big guy. Really helpful. –She said sarcastically. The robot probably took the hint that she wasn’t amused by his attitude, because he sighed and shook his head, before putting his finger on his temples.

\- Right. –He sighed again as if trying to keep calm. –Daredevil, grey, with white marks, blue stripes down down his cheeks, about this tall? –He said gesticulating with his hand. Mex blinked, suddenly remembering the robot who nearly stepped on her earlier.

-I think it… I mean he, went into the fight. –She said, pointing back in the direction of the fight. The sounds of struggle and explosion became distant by the time she pointed the direction. It looked like the fight must have moved further away down the streets.

The yellow robot seemed slightly surprised at that, but his expression immediately changed into pure rage. He growled and slammed his fist into the ground.

-That SON OF A GLITCH…!! –He yelled, before he picked himself up from the ground with a speed of sound, and then ran straight to fight’s direction.

Mex just stood there blinking once again, before frowing and shouting after already gone robot.

-You’re welcome!!! –She turned as well to finally escape this madness, although she managed only a few steps before stopping. She stood there for a few moments, feeling a strange… pull. This feeling inside her... it was so familiar and yet… so unknown at the same time. She had that feeling since the first moment she saw these robots and the longer she lingered around them, the stronger and more certain it became… There was… something… about them.Something improtant. Mex clenched her fists and closed her eyes and took deep breath to calm down. It was probably nothing.

…

But then again…Since when did she let a „probably” stop her?

Mex turned sharply on her heels, and ran after the robots, determined to find out, what was so important about them.

 

****

 

Charge groaned as he was slammed into the wall by the Decepticon jet, Hydra, he felt his right shoulder dislocate. He gritted his denta at the pain, but just as quickly he jumped away. The next moment a blast hit the spot where he stood a second ago. He barely had a minute to grab his handgun with his remaining hand, and jump backward before he was nearly cut in half by a sword. The Decepticon charged forward with swords in his hands, his face undreadable.

\- Hey kid, ever heard of „Never take a sword to a gunfight”? –He asked smirking as he dodged the next blow.

-You would know, wouldn’t you? –He bit back with a frown before jumping up using his thrusters for the extra push forward, and kicked Charge hard in the chest. The old ex-Decepticon fall back crying out as he landed on his damaged arm.

Hydra clenched his fists on the handles of his swords while raising them, ready to finish Charge off. Now was his perfect chance. He waited longer for this than he would have prefered to… and yet he hesitated. Just for a moment. It was a terrible mistake. And that was enough for something gray to crash into him from the side catching him off guard. They slammed into the ground hard, Hydra dropping swords from the impact of the smaller cybertronian.

Charge blinked couple times, in surprise. He wasn’t sure his optics were working right. He saw Daredevil jumping up, with his blue blades moving forward on he side of his arm, battle ready. He allowed himself a small smile. Even though the kid disobeyed orders, he also saved his life to fight a Decepticon at least twice his size. Maybe, juuuust maybe, he wasn’t THAT hopeless as he though…

-I wasn’t finished with you, Decepticreep! –Daredevil growled pointing his blades at Hydra, who stood up, taking his swords, looking him over. He snorted unamusedly.

\- You aren’t worth my time. –He said flatly.

Daredevil sneered at the other skinchanger. He took a good look at him. The red stripes were clearly visible on his face. The Autobot youngster dashed straight at the other of his kind, with anger written all over him.

Hydra narrowed his optics and braced himself for the incoming attack. His swords clashed with the autobot’s blades, sparks flying from the impact. He looked down the little guy with the usual cold and calculated matter. This guy… He barely reached his chest in height, and yet he took on him on his own? Interesting.His optic moved higher and higher along the little Autobot frame, until it finally froze at his face, spotting something…There was something in his eyes… something Hydra knew all too well.

He narrowed his optics.

-Very well Autobot. –He said with a smirk, pushing his swords against the other’s blades.

In the meanwhile, Charge pulled himself up. His visual was still little bit hazy from the attack, and the pain was still making him little numb. His optics started to search for others. Finally at some point, he noticed big, familiar figure far away from him. He witnessed Pacific being attacked by a smaller Decepticonin his alt mode. It seemed to be… some kind of… animal. He roared and jumped at the dinobot wildly, his claws and fangs started to tear pieces off the bigger bot’s armor. Pacific tried to shake him off, but it only caused the Con’s claws to cut deeper into him. Pacific cried out in pain, dropping the blaster Charge threw him earlier.

-Oh, for Primus’s sake! –He growled and shook his head in disbelief while looking up, then leaped into the fight to help his teammate. He ignored the terrible ache in his arm and slammed into the both of them from the side, then quickly and swiftly grabbed the animal-like Decepticon by his neck with his healthy arm, and slammed his head into the ground as the three of them fall. He grit his teeth to hold back a snarl, as he landed again on his damaged arm. He groaned a little, and then attempted to pick his focus back. It took a while, and when he became aware of his surroundings again, he looked for the enemy’s whereabouts. He didn’t have to look long. It looked like Decepticon lost consciousness at least. Pacific sat down and slowly turned his head up to face the sky, at the same time closing his optics and panting heavily. His left hand was holding his right shoulder, which was heavily bleeding. Cuts ran down his sides and were covering his back. Some of them were deep enough to be bleeing as well. The young dinobot was hurt... pretty badly. Charge could clearly see how serious the state of young Dinobot was, not that they were hard to spot. Even if he tried to hide it, Pacific’s whole body shook wildly. He was clearly in pain, and he was obviously not used to it.

Charge growled in pain standing up, then he grabbed the dinobot under his armpit with his good arm,and pulled him up, forcing him to stand up.

-Come on Mr. Pacifist, let’s get you somewhere safe. –Pacific made a face, and if his whole sensore net wasn’t throbbing with pain he would have made a nasty remark at the nickname.

It wasn’t the wounds that caused the pain, Pacific knew it. It was much more deeper than that. Much more dangerous. Trying to hold it back. He felt his whole body shake with the effort of holding it back. He had to. The pain got worse, but he couldn’t bring himself to care… _Just… hold back. Hold it back._ He kept telling himself mentally.

Charge looked carefully around, checking if area was safe for him to make a quick call, then he reached his audios.

.: Prime, I’m taking Pacific out of here, he’s not doing so well, think you can hold it until I get back? :. Charge asked Avalanche through the commlink.

.: Yeah, of course! No… argh, back off!… problem at all!:. _Well that wasn’t very convincing…_ The ex-Decepticon thought with a shake of his head.He looked at suffering Dinobot under his armpit, and sighed. It was a hard choice, but he knew young Dinobot can’t keep up long in this state. He just simply hoped the kid won’t get himself killed till he gets back…

Not far away, Avalanche dodged another deadly swing of a saw. He jumped back, trying to gain some distance between them in order to get a better look at his opponent. The Decepticon jumped out of nowhere at him, wielding his saw like a mainiac. In his eyes you could clearly see solid determination to cut him in half with his bone-saw. Still focused, and wary about opponent, he backed out even more, and prepared himself to dodge in any direction, in the same time not letting him out of his sight, analyzing him carefully. If he could find his weakpoint, and not get himself killed before Charge gets back, they could take him down.

He barely had a moment to take a break, before Decepticon charged at him again. He jumped over the path of his saw, and dove down to the ground. His hand landed on the ground first, and he managed to turn back to face the Decepticon again. His other arm moved back, slightly raised at his head level. He managed to catch a glimpse of the alt mode. Apperently it was a copter… interesting.

Control Spiral was grinning like a maniac. Oh, this so much fun! Autobots were such weaklings, he almost pitied them… almost. He extended his other bone saw too, swinging both his weapons straight at his enemy’s head. The Autobot ducked his head, squatting down, before jumping forward. For a moment Control Spiral thought he was going to crash right into him, so he got his hands in front of him, bracing for the impact. At this,Avalanche moved to the side just a little before the impact point, moving past him, and with a sharp turn, kicked him hard in the back.

The rotor blades on the Con’s back creaked from the impact, the kick sending himto fall down on his front with a pained growl.Control Spiral’s optics brightened with anger behind his visor. He immediately looked back to see the pesky little Autobot was about to strike with another kick at his blades. He quickly stood up, moved to the side, block his kick, then push him back, before dashing torward him and finally managing to sink his saw deep in the Autobot’s side.

Avalanche howled in pain, and stumbled back. Heclutched his side, purple fluid covered his hand immediately. Energon blood was flowing from the cut. It was deep he didn’t need a medic to diagnose it. His damage report said the saw didn’t cut through anything vital but it still hurt like scrap. He grit his teeth and raised the head, staring as the hazy Decepticon figure came closer and closer…He knew he has to stand up, he has to get up … he has to, or he’ll die, this Con won’t hesitate to finish the job, to cut him in half laughing maniacally.

Control Spiral flashed a toothy grin, before raising his right saw to finish off the Bot once and for all. He was about to strike down when a blade clashed with a sword midway. One of the Autobots jumped between him and the other one. He was met face to face with a shorter yellow Autobot. The blade pushed against his whirring saw, causing sparks to fly out from between them. It was just a matter of time before either the blade will break or his saw will get impaired. Control Spiral pushed back against the blade for a few more moments, sure of the outcome. In short time he noticed that it wasn’t even cracking, so he jumped back to avoid the damage to his saw. The blade must have been made of some pretty strong alloy to withstand his…

-You alright Prime? –The yellow one glanced at the one on the ground, still facing the Decepticon, but enough to see fellow Autobot in the corner of his vision.He got a weak nod from Avalanche.

 _Wait a second…_ THAT was their Prime?! Control Spiral blinked in shock behind his visor, his previous train of thought totally forgotten.Well, he completely didn’t expect THAT… but, if that’s the case, Caliber will be dissapointed. More than disappointed…

Control Spiral grinned, before a loud cracking laugh erupted from his vocalizier. The two Autobots looked at him in confusion.

Salvager made a face and frowned.

-What’s so funny Con? –He growled at Decepticon. He still kept his blades in front of himself ready for anything.

\- You! Oh, boy, Caliber will freak! He actually thought you guys are going to be interesting or something, after you took us down like that… but oh well, looks like you are just another disapointment. –Control Spiral said, still laughing.

Avalanche looked up. _Another disapointment… Another disapointment… Another…_

-Glad to hear that ‘Con, at least we don’t have to live up to your soooo high expectations! –Salvager bit back in a mocking tone, he didn’t seem offended nor affected by the Decepticon’s words at all. He pointed one of his blades right at Control Spiral, with determination written all over his faceplate.

\- Let’s see if you got something more than ‘good’ sense of humor! –He said challenging the tan mech.

Control Spiral stopped laughing, looking Salvager over, as if to see he was worth it.Suddenly he smirked, in a way that would have sent down shivers of fear down anymech’s spine. His bone saws roared again, before charging forward right at the Autobot medic with creepy, demented laughter.

Salvager barely had time to duck, as one of the chainsaws nearly took off a piece of his head. He jumped to the side, but the Con was already after him. The guy was crazy, that was sure now, the way he was swinging his saws, as if nothing mattered more than to cut everything to pieces around him, and that laugh… eeesshh.

Salvager kept dodging his attacks, moving from side to side, keeping his blades crossed in front of himself. He could tell the Con was getting already frustated, his moves were becomming less coordianted (not they were coordinated to begin with), and his grin slowly started to turn into a snarl. He obviously thought he could get this ov… ah! There it was! The building he has been searching for.

Salvager looked up, that was exactly what he was looking for. A building barely holding together. _Perfect._

Salvager moved to the side, dodging another incomming attack. Meanwhile he looked over the building for it’sweakspot. Yes, that’s exactly the one. A set of already damaged pillars, if he could take just one down… Primus let this work.

He blew out air, he didn’t even realise he was holding in. _Show time!_ With that he charged forward, his blades crushin against the Con’s saws once again. He put his whole weight forward and started pushing, his opponent backwards.

Control Spiral took a step back. Then another. And then another one. The yellow autoscum sure had some strenght there. Or he could just blame his damaged rotorblades… yeah, let’s do that, it was his rotoblades fault.

Sudenly the Autobot took a step back, before dashing towards him with all his weight to slam into him. The next moment he found himself flying backwards. His back crashed against a building. There was a sharp and piercing pain in his back and he roared in pain, his cracked rotoblades broke from the impact. There was no time to even react, respond to it, he fall to he ground with a heavy thud.

He then heard a slow, but loud cracking sound, right behind him…  He barely head time to raise his head, to see the pillar he crashed aganst started to collapse, as the rest of the building shook before rocks started to fall down…  Optics widened, instincts kicked in. He had to get out,right now but it was too late. The place basically collapsed right on top of him.

Salvager barely had time to get out of there, as the entire building collapsed down on the Decepticon. A thick dust cloud rose up as heinstincively looked behind him. He waited in case the threat is still present. There was no sign of the crazy Con… Primus… He couldn’t believe it. He resisted the urge to slap himself… He survived. Not that he doubted that he will of course… but still, he made it! It was a pleasant surprise.

\- Nice job over there.–Came a familiar voice behind him - Looks like you’re not as worthless as you look. I thought you said something about watching out for the buildings? –He could sense the sarcasm in the question. He turned around to meet a smirking Charge, who was supporting pretty much beat-up Avalanche. _Great._

\- Guessing from the state of those pillars… it would have collapsed anyways, or if not, the humans would have had to demolish it. –He said before turning to Avalanche… and that was a big mistake. The Prime’s side wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it was covered in dried energon. He felt himself get week in the knees, and his vision went fuzzy. He instantly turned away, but he already felt both his mind and feet slip. He was about to fall when someone grabbed the back of neck yanking him back to his feet.

\- Whoa, whoa, don’t black out on us kid! –Charge shouted, still shaking Salvager in one hand, while he supported Avalanche with the other one. That immediately brought him out of the darkness, with senses sharpening in time. The medic’s vision slowly came back, cleared out a bit. shaking him back to conciusness.

\- S-sorry…I… I’m okay... –He managed weakly. Charge waited a few seconds to make sure he was standing firm on his legs before letting go of him.

\- Geez, you just took down a Con, but you see a little spilled energon and you faint on the spot… What’s wrogn with you? Pull yourself together! –Charge shook his head obviously not amused with the state of the medic.

Salvager stood back his feet, his vision came back to normal, but he avoided looking at Avalanche. He knew he could do it... He had to, he was the team’s only medic, and even though Charge could do some basic patch-up jobs, it seemed… –because wounds like that on Avalanche side doesn’t just stop bleeding like that–…he wasn’t a medic. Salvager was. And the team needed him.Now.

\- Alright… where’s Pacific? How is he? –He asked while stepping next to them still not looking at the Prime, to help to support his other side.

\- He’s a few streets away, nohing major but he has some pretty ugly wounds, and cuts, think you can handle it? –Charge asked in a mocking tone.

\- Of course I can! –Salvager snapped back glaring up at the old ex-Con.–I’ll take care of Prime and Pacific, you should go and find Daredevil.

Charge didn’t look convinced that the medic won’t faint the next minute, but he did have a point. He left Daredevil to battle Hydra alone… The odds weren’t exactly in the little skinchanger’s favor. He noded to the medic before transforming and taking off in search of the kid.

 

****

 

Silence. Mex ran down the street. Back to the core of the destruction, where the fight began… The streets were now deserted, even the fighting seemed to… cease. Everything was so painfully quiet.

She stopped for a moment, to look around. Even the sirens stopped by now. She looked over the destroyed streets, empty of human and battling giant robots… just destruction everywhere. She felt her stomach turn.

 _What the bloody hell am I doing here?_ She asked herself for the hundredth time since she decided to come back. She took in a deep, ragged breath, before she continued running.  Running through the center of the destroyed road, through obstacles and buildings remnants. On one of these obstacles she had to pull herself up. Just before she grabbed the edge, she looked at her hand. Her own hand, whole arm, was clearly shaking, but neither of being tired, nor of feeling cold. It was shaking because she was scared. Terrified to the core.

Mex grit her teeth, and firmly grabbed the edge, and pulled herself up. Her heart was pounding inside her chest. She looked around. There was no sign of the robots or the fight anymore…

 _Is it… over?_ She listened carefully, but there were no more explosions, or shouting… just silenc… Wait what was that?

Something crashed. Then a guttural growl followed and the sound of metal crashin on metal. It was close…

Mex jumped off the obstacle, she climbed, and ran in the direction of the voices. She turned the next corner and froze on the spot. It was the gray robot, who nearly stepped on her earlier. He was fighting with thered eye robot she saw when this all began… He seemed to have… swords? Can robots even use swords? Well it appeared they could. The gray one… what did the yellow guy say what was his name? Dare… Dare…something.

He was covered in cuts all over, and seemed to be heavily limping as he dodged another incomming cut. However he wasn’t fast enough, as the next incomming blow deliever a depp cut right through his chest. Whats-his-name stumbled back, as the other one put his swords away… on his back somehow?... and sent him to the ground with a hard kick in the chest.

Mex gasped in fright as the gray bot fall to the ground, she expected the other one to finnish him off. It didn’t take a genius to notice the killing intent. She looked around, she had to help somehow!

 _I could get killed…_ The thought frozen her on the spot for a moment. She wasn’t stupid, she knew comming back here was already a Rudeadly gamble, but… the realisation of the fact that she could indeed **die** here and now, just dawned on her this moment. It was just… immobilizing.

She looked up and saw the taller robot raise his arm as some kind of weapon on it… the one he used earlier… started to charge up? Or whatever it was doing.

 _But so can he._ She thought, as a strong feeling suddenly overcame her. She didn’t feel anything for a moment. No fear, no panic. Nothing except the need to protect, the need to help. And this moment was just enough for her to make up her mind. She looked around and saw that the smaller robot, who managed to sat up now, was against a pillar under an overpass, that haven’t got destroyed until now.

She took a deep breath to steel herself, and made her move.

Meanwhile Daredevil was gasping for air. He felt warm energon trickle down his chest, thank Primus the wound wasn’t too deep. He looked up at his opponent, standing right in front of him, and glared at him right in the optics. He wasn’t going to show fear, even if these were his last moments, not to a Deceptiscum like this.

However if he wanted to be honest with himself… he was scared. He didn’t want to die, even if he went down fighting. He didn’t want to die…

He looked at the Con’s arm mounted nullrays, the tip of the weapon was blazing right red. The bastard was just dragging it out, prolonging the misery… He could kill him any moment, but he waited instead, perhaps to see him breaking, or maybe even start begging for his life...

Hydra looked over the Autobot once again, before frowing.

\- What a waste of time… –He said and with that he flexed his wrist to fire, when something suddenly hit him in the head. It wasn’t anything big, or hard, or didn’t cause any damage, but it was enough to distract him and register as an attack in his processor.

Mex didn’t wait for a reaction, she quickly grabbed another rock. She had to distract it… even if just for a moment, she had to. With a swing of her arm she threw the second rock at the robot’s head too… and then… then everything happened so fast.

Hydra couldn’t stop the shot even if he wanted to. The little insect dare to throw a rock at him like that! He quickly moved his arm to shoot down the disgusting earthling, but a second rock hit him in the optic, and there went his aim out the window. He hissed his other hand comming up to his optics, as the the blast erupted from his weapon.

Mex screamed, as the robot suddenly shot the overpass right under her and above the gray robot, a giant explosion covering both of them. _Everything happened so fast_ … She barely had time to register the heat around her… the smoke rising up… her skin burnt… and the overpass collapsed under her right on … Daredevil… she fall down… she felt rocks fallign down on her and then… then she felt nothing. There was nothing, it was absolute nothingness, perfect deadly silence. There was no pain anymore, she felt nothing, as her mind fully swept away into darkness.

_Everything happened so fast…_

_Sometimes I let reality get too close. That’s when the dreams start. I find myself in a world where I belong, among people I should recognise. I feel like I know them. I feel like I am one of them._

_I feel like I am finally home._

_Then I hear screaming. Then I realise I am the one who’s screaming. I start to fall… fall into the nothingness. That’s when darkness comes…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tooned for third chappy soon! We'll take a little trip to the past! ;) I'm also open for comments and critism!
> 
> ...Who am I kidding? It'll take me ages to finnish the third one...
> 
> Anyways, see you guys in a lifetime! ;)


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